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BRITTAN AND RICHMOND'S DISCUSSION 



OF THE 



SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



Mr. Editor, 

Dear Sir — In forwarding this copy of Brittan and 
Richmond's Discussion to your address, we beg leave to 
offer the following suggestion : This is the only volume extant 
in which the facts and arguments for and against Spiritual- 
ism are presented by accredited advocates. For this reason, 
if for no other j we trust it will be carefully read and gene- 
rally noticed by the Press. 

We are now rapidly extending our list of Publications, and 
shall be pleased to send you, from time to time, the better 
class of our books, should we learn from this experiment 
that you are disposed to treat them fairly. 

THE PUBLISHERS. 
New York, Aug. 25th, 1853. 



Partridge and Brittan's Spiritual Library, 



DISCUSSION 



THE FACTS AND PHILOSOPHY 



AICIENT AID MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 



S. B BRITTAN. AND DR. B. W. RICHMOND. 



Wkosoerer is afraid of submitting any question, civil or religious, to the test of free Discussion, 
is more in love ■viith. his o'svn opinion than with Truth. — Bishop Watson. 



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NEW YORK : 
PARTRIDGE & BRITTAN, PUBLISHERS. 

3 BROADWAY". 
185 3. 



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Emteeed, according to act of Congress, in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred 
and Fifty-three, by FAETEIDG E & EEITTAN, in the Clerk's Office of the 
District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. 



DEDICATION. 



To Chaeles Pakteidge, Esq. : 

My Dearr Sio' — ^Permit me to acknowledge, in the man- 
ner of my choice, that in every circumstance of trial, I 
have found you willing and ready to battle for an honest 
conviction, in an undisguised and magnanimous spirit, and at 
your own cost. It is for this, especially, that I desire, on the 
present occasion, to testify my respect for your character. I 
am happy that wealth has neither corrupted the integrity of 
your natui-e, allured you to a Kfe of useless indolence, nor 
diminished your sympathy for the wayward and the destitute ; 
but that, on the contrary, it has prompted you to go out into 
the dusty highways of life, and the great thoroughfares of 
the world, to vindicate the Truth, and to reheve the poor. 
Therefore do I regard you as a consistent friend of Human 
Progress ; and I beg leave to dedicate my humble labors in 
the following Discussion, in a special manner, to yourself. 

With assurances of personal friendship and esteem, I am,. 

Yom^ truly, 

S. B. BKITTAN. 

New York, AK^g. 1st, 1853. 



TO THE PtEADER. 



About the first of June, 1852, I received a friendly note from 
Dr. B. TV". Eichniond, of Jefferson, Ohio, requesting me to em- 
body the facts and reasons in support of the alleged Spiritual 
origin of the Manifestations, which he proposed to accomjjany 
with a critical review and numerous facts and observations of his 
own, and expressing a desire that the whole might be published 
in a volume of several hundred pages. Dr, Richmond's letters 
in the Tribune had previously attracted very general attention, 
and he was regarded, at that time, as the most formidable op- 
ponent to the Spiritual theory in this country. Indeed, the editor 
of the Trilmne had expressed the opinion that he was the ablest 
man which the Spiritual phenomena had called into the field ; 
and it was manifest to all, that he had at least the candor to ac- 
knowledge the facts, if he had not the ability to explain them, 
on his favorite hypothesiSo All other opposing theories seemed 
childish or absurd, while the one suggested by my correspondent 
certainly demanded the most serious consideration. I had no 
wish to shun the proposed ordeal ; but having to perform, in ad- 
dition to numerous other .duties, the entire editorial labor of a 
weekly paper and a monthly magazine, I was quite too much 
occupied to accept the proposition of Dr. Richmond, which, for 
these reasons, was respectfully declined. But the private cor- 
respondence thus commenced was continued, and finally resulted 
in a mutual agreement respecting the terms and conditions for a 
public written discussion of the facts and philosophy of the 



TO THE READER. 



Spiritual mysteries. It was deemed expedient to give the ques- 
tion two forms, so that each party might in turn occupy both the 
affirmative and the negative. Accordingly the following prop- 
ositions were proposed and accepted, as comprehending, in gen- 
eral terms, the subject to be discussed: 

1. Can the mystericas phenomena, now occurring in various parts of the 
United States and elsewhere, and known as the Spiritual Manifestations, be 
properly accounted for, without admitting the agency of Spirits m their pro- 
duction? 

2. Do those who have departed this life still continue to hold intercourse 
with those who yet remain on the earth ? 

Each of the foregoing propositions formed the subject of twelve 
affirmative letters, with an equal number in the negative, making 
in all forty-eight letters. This volume contains the entire cor- 
respondence, as originally published in the Spirituai, Telegraph, 
and doubtless presents a larger number of facts and reasons, in 
illustration of ancient and modern Spiritualism, than any book 
yet published. Further than this it would not become the pres- 
ent writer to express an opinion of its merits. As the work 
presents both sides of the question, which is now engaging the 
attention of the civilized world, it is confidently expected that it 
will find numerous readers, and especially that those who oppose 
the Spiritual idea, and desire to be fortified at all points, will 
make themselves familiar with the numerous facts which Dr. 
Richmond has furnished in this volume. 

The reader must bear in mind, while perusing the f/rst series 
of letters, that my correspondent has the affirmative, and that 
our relations to the question were such, that it was in order for 
him to prove the position assumed, while it was proper for me 
to confine myself strictly to an analysis of his facts, and a rep- 
lication to such observations as seemed pertinent to the question. 
The facts and arguments, in illustration of the Spiritual theory 



TO THE READER. 



were therefore reserved until tlie commencement of tlie discus- 
sion of the second proposition, AThen alone thej could be in- 
troduced in an orderly manner. 

Among the numerous facts cited in the following correspond- 
ence, to illustrate the Spiritual origin of the Manifestations, I 
learn that two examples, recorded in the eighth letter of my 
second series, have been called in question. The cases are those 
in which the name of J. H. TVhiting occurs. An anonymous 
informant of one of the Milwaulde papers has disputed some of 
the essential features of the statement there given, and which 
was made on the authority of Mr, Whiting himself. There are 
substantial reasons for regarding Mr. W. as a man of strict ve- 
racity ; but I deem it possible that he may have been misin- 
formed, in the particulars wherein he is disputed, though the 
unwillingness of the party in MilwauMe to openly assume the 
responsibility of his own statement may not seem to favor such 
a conclusion. But facts of a similar character are now multi- 
plying so rapidly, that the esamples referred to can very well be 
spared, if it shall finally appear that they are essentially untrue. 

"With these brief remarks, the whole is respectfully submitted 
to the verdict of the Public. For niyself, I ask no indulgence 
for the errors of this book, and anticipate no applause for the 
truth it may be found to contain. !N"othing is claimed, at least 
on my part, but an honest desire to promote the truth, and to 
quicken the aspirations of men after communion with the Divine. 
If what is here written shall subserve this purpose, even in the 
humblest manner, I shall be satisfied. 

S. B. BEITTAN. 
New York, Aug. itJi, 1853. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN^S DISCUSSION. 

SPIRIT-IMITATIONS. 

LETTER I. 

S. B. Brittan : 

Dear Sir : Having been repeatedly solicited to give my views of the 
" Spii'itual Manifestations," and the columns of the Telegraph having 
been liberally offered me for that purpose, I mil furnish two columns, 
or more, weekly, for tbe perusal of your readers. 

I attacb much, more importance to the " Manifestations " than most 
persons who oppose them ; and am fully persuaded in my own mind, 
tbat, if the various phases of the magnetic condition, into which the 
human mind, and body, may be thrown, were fully studied, and com- 
prehended, that all, or nearly all, that now appears mysteiy and wonder, 
would be dissipated ; and the public would go calmly to work to study 
this wonder, and try to c-omprehend more of the mysteriousness of our 
own natui'e. I regard it as the natural fruit of an abnormal magnetic 
state ; and the public, not knowing how to explain it, the first "rap- 
pings " were attributed to the " spirits," and the idea having been set 
afloat, it has been adopted ; and every person who has heretofore ob- 
served, or now witnesses, any of its multiplied singularities, does so under 
an impression, more or less distinct, that it is the work of departed 
spirits ; and, as soon as any thing is observed that is a little singular, 
the mind not succeeding in its attempts to unravel it, readily concludes 
that it must be " spirits." This, say most persons, is the easiest way 
of accounting for it, and your theory is so complex, that I can not stop 
to make myself acquainted with it. Suppose that reply to have been 
made to G-allUeo, when he put forth his theory of planetary motion — it 
would have rested with far more force against his system, than it can 
against the explanation I offer against the Spirit theory. Much is 
known, by the liberal-minded, in this country and in Em-ope, of the cu- 
rious phenomena often seen, connected with this abnormal magnetic 
state ; whUe nothing was known on the subject which he attempted to 
explain to the world. To the common mind, it was plain and easy 



4 A DISCUSSION. 

that the Earth was flat, and rested on something — on the back of Atlas, 
and he stood on a tortoise, and the tortoise, again, on something, of 
course— ht must stand on something — and the fact that no body could 
tell what, was not permitted to stumble any one, on the theory that the 
Earth was flat and rested on a foundation. Motion, space, attraction, 
and repulsion, were not understood, and the Philosopher came near 
losing his life, and did lose his liberty of person, and character for intel- 
ligence. When the world is as fully instructed in certain principles 
connected with our existence, as it is in the laws of the physical uni- 
verse, the " rappings," I think, will cease to be a wonder. The whole 
subject has been studied on the theory that it was " spirits," and but 
few persons have allowed themselves to ask the questions, ' Can these 
phenomena be explained on any other principle } Are they wholly 
caused hj forces., acting in our own bodies, hitherto not understood ? 
or are they the work of spirits of departed friends, returning to our 
sphere — ^to renew their acquaintance, and to quicken our souls into a 
higher longing after immortality and a future } Or, is it the work 
partly of spirits, and partly caused by our magnetic state, which enables 
them to approach us .?' I do not expect to convert any believer in its 
spiritual origin, to my notions ; their minds are made v/£ — the fact is 
clear to them — and their minds are unbalanced for investigation. And 
the opposers are in a similar mood : their minds are made up — they 
know it to be a '■'■ hiombug," and need no light to make the fact clearer. 
Of both parties I ask a candid hearing ; suspend, if possible, your pre- 
conceptions, and listen, and weigh what of fact I may give you. 

A friend, writing me on the subject, says my theory is as " marvelous as 
the Atheist's theory of creation, added to the Mosaic " ; but still urges 
me to give my views to the public. I have waited to see if my first 
effort impressed any one, as affording any rational clue to the cause of 
this marvel ; and, beyond one, I have not met a single person who can 
see any thing in what I wrote. And so I say to jonv readers, don't 
suppose that I have the vanity to believe, that I am going to upset the 
drift of feeling in favor of the cry of " spirits " that everywhere pre- 
vails. The press, generally, has scouted it as a cheat ; its friends have 
Mieved, readily, all that has been claimed for it ; and I know too well 
the perverse tendency in the human mind to be very sanguine, ^nt 
the facts the public are entitled to, and whatever judgment maybe ren- 
dered, I shall be prepared for it. Your faith has urged you to defend 
by reason, what you believed to be a truth, and in this I am cheered — 
there is hope of the mind that will reason ; but ignorance, and power, 



RICHilOXD AND BRITTAN. O 

prefer to coerce the belief of tlie human mind. I regard this phenom- 
enon of much importance ; it is taking deep hold of many miads, and the 
waves already in motion, will widen and spread, till the thing takes a 
definite shape, in the form of a religious organization. I mention as 
an axiom to be borne in mind, that the success of an idea in the world 
does not depend on its truthfulness ; truth does not always preyail ; the 
mysteriousness of any statement gives it far greater power than truth- 
fulness, especially when it pertains to the realms of helief. The causes 
which put in motion the " rappings," may operate for a century, on 
the human organization — and let not the public suppose we are done 
with them. 

With these preliminary remarks, let us commence our examiuation of 
facts, by attending first to the " Spii-it imitations." A marked exam- 
ple of this is found in your ''/ac simile'''' of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence," written by the sphits. The first copy was made, during 
the sitting of a circle, through the hand of a medium ; the spuits not 
liking this, told hiin to burn the first copy, and place another paper 
where they could complete the document during the night. Parchment 
was placed on the table, in the sleeping-room of the medium, and in 
the morning the parchment was covered over with what can not be 
denied as being very good imitations of the hand-writing of the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence. The whole documient is highly 
marked by a nervous tremor^ and is as clearly the work of a single hand, 
as any document ever written. The hand of John Hancock is very 
near the original size ; but the hand trembled — and it will be remem- 
bered in the old Declaration the hand was smooth and lold. The only 
name on the Spirit Declaration wi'itten without trembling is Stephen 
Hopkins ; in this name the hand isfir/n, and in the original the hand 
•w&s pa7-ali/iic— so much so that it was a striking name on the old scroll. 
The account in the Telegraph leaves the reader to suppose, that the 
Declaration on parchment written dm'ing the night was wi'itten by the 
hand of the spirits, in person, without the intervention of the hand of 
the medium. This is the impression left on the mind of the public 
everywhere. If each spirit wrote his or her name there, without a me- 
dium, then are we to conclude that spirits, generally, in the next sphere, 
are troubled with palsy — ^for almost every name on the scroll shows a 
palsied hand, with the exception of the name before mentioned ; and 
Hopkins died with paralysis, or had it while writing his name to the old 
Declaration. He, it appears, has recovered his steady nerves, whUe the 
whole meeting of spirits that signed that paper, are now able to write 



A DISCUSSION. 



only with a trembling hand. During the winter, John Q. Adams^who 
died of palsy, and wrote a paralytic hand for years before his death — 
in communicating with his friends in this place, not only wrote, but 
signed his name, in a pai-alytic hand. When asked if he could not 
write a,Jir?)i hand, he replied that he could not yet control the hand of 
the medium ; and, on further questioning, he afl&rmed that he had not 
yet recovered from his paralytic state, and was obliged to write as he 
did at his death. When the propriety of believing such a statement 
was brought up, he affirmed that he was imitating his old hand, and 
that it was so '•'• painful " for him to control the medium, so as to ma.ke 
him write in the hand he used to write, that when besought to write, 
he, in kindness quite characteristic^ said to his friends, " Please don't ask 
me to write — it is very painful." 

Those who believe in a spirit-future may believe, if they choose, that 
the spirits are paralytic — from ten to fifty years after entering that 
state — I do not choose to admit such a statement That spirits, who 
approach mediums so as to move articles of furniture of great heft, can 
not control a pen so as to write a firm hand, is preposterous — whether 
they write with or without a medium. The spirits who wrote the Dec- 
laration either were all paralytic, or they could not control the medi- 
um's hand so as to make a steady mark. 

We ask you to state candidly to the public, whether the niediibni 
wrote the declaration by the aid of the spirits ; or, whether the spirits 
wrote it without azV/, while he was locked in the arms of balmy sleep. 
If the medium wrote the names on the parchment, then the nervoiis 
tremhling of the hand may be explained ; for most mediums who i??ii- 
tate handwritings with any accuracy, are very nervous, and are the 
most impressible class of mediums ; but, if we are to fall back on the 
impression left on the public mind, that the spirits did not use the hand 
of the medium — you wiU find it difiicult, I think, to convince sane men, 
that spirits wrote that parchment without the aid of a human hand ; — 
as in that case, you will at once be obliged to admit, that they all had 
a subsultus tendinum — (twitching of the nerves.) In discussing this 
point, I shall assume that it is all the work of the medium, conscious 
or unconscious — I care not which — spirits had nothing to do with it, 
and the whole is the result of the imitative mechanic power of the me- 
dium, brought out by the abnormal magnetic state, which exists while 
he is wilting. 

I will now attempt to prove, that such powers do exist, and that 
persons in this state, do imitate, both handwriting, style of speaking. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 7 

and gestui'ing — and in numerous cases have been known to execute 
meclianical and artistic feats, of wliich they were wholly incapable in 
the normal state. A medium of my acquaintance, who was seized with 
a desu-e to " do good," and was perplexed about the means of support- 
ing his family, while he should go forth into the field to reap the har- 
vest that seemed already ripe for the sickle, says, the spu'it of Sweden- 
borg informed him that he should be provided for, and enabled to do 
the will of the Lord. By interior impression, the old philosopher and 
theologian taught the medium the construction of a " shingle ma- 
chine ;" the model of which was duly executed by the medium, and I 
am informed has been sold by him for a good farm, on to which he has 
moved his family. I have never seen the machine and can say nothing 
of its value, only that it must be a very convincing '' physical demon- 
stration" to the medium. The inventor has never been noted for me- 
chanical powers— and his head indicates anything but a mechanical 
genius — in fact, his life has been a tissue of intellecPual and moral illu- 
sions and fancies ; and in some respects he has a superior mental or- 
ganization. The idea, that Swedenborg has been busy in cramming 
into this gentleman's head a " shingle machine " for his especial be- 
hoof and benefit, is too ludicrous to be mentioned ; but that his excited 
mental state enabled him to comprehend mechanics, so as to construct 
what he desired, is to my mind, a settled fact.* 

Some years since, a poor man in Western New-York, became much 
excited on the subject of his poverty, and took to reading the Bible, and 
stumbled across the 10th chapter of Ezekiel, in which the prophet, 
while in a vision by the river Chebar, saw a strange machine, described 
as having a " wheel in a wheel." This arrested the old man's atten- 
tion, and prefigured to him, that Grod was about to bring forth this 
" machine," seen by Ezekiel, in a tangible form, for the benefit of the 
race. He had secluded himself for months in an old ashery near a 
swamp, where he was at work day and night, he was in cheerful mood, 
and appeared unusually hopeful. One night he called on me and wished 
to communicate something important, we retired to the barn, he ap- 
peared strange, and his eyes were luminous in expression, and he spoke 
in a low tone. He told me the earth was about to be revolutionized ; 
that he had twice fallen into a trance, his " knees smote," and his 
*' strength left him and he fell to the earth " — that he saw among the 
clouds, wheels and bars, and pins, and gearing to a vast amount ; the 
use of which he did not know till his second vision. But, said he, with 
emphasis, " I am rich, the waste places of the earth shall be re- 
* See Appendix, Note A. 



b A DISCUSSION. 

built ; water can be carried to the deserts and tbe mountaiu tops. 
* the earth shall blossom like the rose,' this ' machine ' is one of the 
'trumpets' to be sounded in the earth. To-morro-w yoih can see it 
alone, you are chosen first." Flattered with this mark of confidence 
from the celestials, I repau-ed to the " old ashery," and found it filled 
with wheels, and traps, and cranks, strung together with great adroit- 
ness. A huge flume was overhead, a set of double chain-pumps were 
set in a pool of water beneath, with a large wheel geared in a crude 
way, with everything in the building. The water was to be carried up 
by the pumps into the flume and let on to the wheel below, and the 
wheel carried the pumps, and the water being discharged into the pool 
beneath, was used over and over. I thought I comprehended the prin- 
ciple of this spiritual machinery at a glance, and informed him that the 
power of his wheel was just balanced by his pumps, and he had the 
friction against him, and as soon as his water run out, his machine 
would stop. He cast a clever glance at me, as much as to say ; " do 
you know better than (xod," and suiting the action to the look, he 
jerked the lever that controlled the gate, and such an unearthly set of 
combinations and motions, were never before seen by mortal eyes. It 
moved till his flume was empty — the pumps failing to carry water 
enough to make it go, and suddenly stopped. I again pressed the point 
of defect ; but he insisted that he had " received poiver to evade it,'' 
and that he could add power ad infinihim, that he could move the uni- 
verse with it. He next let in his neighbors, and the whole region round 
about became excited about the machine that had been " revealed" to 
Mr. C. He finally sent to Washington for a patent, and was ofi'ered for 
his discovery six thousand dollars, he did not accept it ; the ferment 
died away, and the failure fell with such power on the old man that he 
suddenly died. He was void of mechanic powers to a degree seldom 
seen ; had never been known to construct a wheel or anything else that 
required mechanic abilities, and the solution of his discovery is to be 
found in his abnormal magnetic state ; he was no doubt clairvoyant, and 
his mind being directed to this point, resulted as has been related. All 
his friends noticed that his eye had a penetrating look, and he was sub- 
ject to fits of moodiness. A clergyman tells me of an acquaintance of 
his who got to studying on a perpetual motion and finally discovered 
one, and the last difficulty was overcome by a " spiritual endowment ;" 
the machine would not go for want of a balance-wheel. He prayed, 
and fasted, and studied, and at last a " ^oz%^ of light " rested on the dia- 
gram which he held in his hand, and the spirit said to him, that there 



RICHMOND AXD BRITTAN. 9 

was the pointy for the wheel that would give motion to his great dis- 
covery. This man was a respectable physician, and a shrewd Yankee, 
and had spent a year or more in perfecting his diagrams and models. 
It is needless to say, that he was in an abnormal state, which gave Tin- 
usual activity to his constructive powers. He was simply cliscom- 
f%ddltd. 

A marked instance of the increase of this imitative poicer of persons 
in the magnetic condition, is found in the Seeress of Prevorst. In one 
of her magnetic moods she informed Dr. Kerner that she would make 
out a diagram of spheres. The " Sun sphere " as she called it, is very 
complex — ^but " she spun out the complicated web with unerring pre- 
cision," and a pair of compasses given her to facilitate her labor, only 
embarrassed her. It is made up of chcles within circles, and sections, 
and points, amounting to thousands, related and connected, and yet the 
" whole was executed," says Dr. Kerner, in an "incredibly short space 
of time." An engraving was made of this sphere, and a year after, 
she was shown the engraving, and said it was not correct, a point on 
one of the lines was wanting. On referring to the original, they found 
she was right. This diagram contained many cui'ious things, and in 
some parts related to the highest departments of mathematics. This 
faculty she only possessed in her magnetic state, being wholly incompe- 
tent to the task when not clairvoyant. No living artist can execute 
that diagram with a pen, with a fac-simile before him, with the rapidity 
with which that ignorant, unlettered child of natm-e, did it.* I have in 
many cases witnessed this imitative power of mediums with the pen, dash- 
ing off figiu-es and images with a rashness and rapidity inconceivable. 
For me to affirm that the "Sphit declaration" is the work of a mag- 
netic person, in the state above described, and that the imitation of 
hands, so apparent in the scroll, is no way connected with " sphit " in- 
fluence, is to affirm but little for this magnetic state. 

Jeffersoxv, July 25, 1852. B. W. RICHMOND. 

* See Appendix, Ifote B. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 



LETTER I. 



Dear Sir. — In the discussion of the question before ns, I deem it im- 
portant to devote our time and attention to such phenomena, only, as 
the rational believers in Spirituahsm are accustomed to adduce in support 
of their theory. Facts that are not claimed by intelligent, discriminat- 
ing and well balanced minds, as illustrative of the intercommunication 
between the Physical and Spiritual Worlds, should be disregarded as 
sustaining at most but a remote and doubtftd relation to the subject. I 
must be allowed to remark, that a strict application of this rule would 
prompt the rejection of a large part of your first letter on account of its 
irrelevancy. I desire to confine myself to the propositions mutually ac- 
cepted as the basis of this correspondence, and I am unwilling to 
proceed with that timid circumspection which holds itself at a great dis- 
tance from the theme it proposes to discuss. On the contrary, I wish 
to establish and preserve the most intimate relations with the question, 
and trust you will not deem me uncourteous if I leave the current of 
your observations where they diverge from the subject. 

Two or three remarks in your introduction require a passing notice. 
You assume that the Manifestations as exhibited in the Rappings and 
Writings, are properly referable to an " abnormal magnetic state " of 
the medium. Accordingly, it devolves on you to define the pecioliar ab- 
normal condition on which you presume such phenomena to depend. 
Moreover, you are further bound to show the relation which the ac- 
knowledged facts sustain to their alleged causes. Until this is done I 
have nothing but the naked assumption before me, and may therefore 
spare myself the labor of an argument. 

Again, I think it must be obvious to every careful observer that the 
whole history of the spiritual movement affords little or nothing to war- 
rant the following statements, which I find in your introduction : 

" Every person "who has heretofore observed, or now 'witnesses, any of its mul- 
tiplied singularities, does so under the impression, more or less distinct, that it 
is the work of spirits". . . "The whole subject has been studied on the theory 
that it was spirits." 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 11 

How can this be made to harmonize with your own declaration — 
" The press, generally, has scouted it as a cheat " — which I find in the 
same connection ? Is not the sentiment of the press a fair index to the 
state of the public mind ? And how do the foregoing statements accord 
with the fads ? • Who does not absolutely know that thousands have ap- 
proached the subject with no such impression on their minds, but with 
the settled conviction that the whole was founded in impostm'e and de- 
lusion ? If " every person," who has observed these " multiplied sing- 
ularities, has been influenced by a preimpression, more or less distinct, 
that they are " the work of departed spirits," to what soui'ce shall we 
trace the almost numberless hypotheses, which like a new order of soft 
plants — a sort of intellectual fungi — have started up in all directions, 
living, but for a brief hour, to illustrate the ignorance wherein they ger- 
minate, and the presumptuous vanity which ministers to theii- growth r 
Is it true that even a majority of the people have exhibited this predis- 
position of mind ? And has the whole subject been studied, hitherto, 
on the theory that it was spirits ? Did Dr. Lee, of Buffalo, and his asso- 
ciates, pursue the investigation and elaborate that " scientific report," (?) 
with minds thus preoccupied. Did the " impression," of which you 
speak, prompt Mr. Burr's expose or determine the conclusion of Dr. 
Taylor and the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal ? Has it moved 
" the press, generally, to scout it as a cheat .-" What had it to do with 
'■''Detached Vitalized Electricity " .? with the Falling of Water .' with An- 
imal Mag-netism .'' Somnambulism t Ventriloquism .' Positive and Nega- 
tive Conditions } the Will Power .' Jugglery t or any of the ephemeral 
creations of popular skepticism .' Literally nothing at all ; and the 
minds of men iustead of being origiaaUy inclined to a belief in the spirit- 
ual theory, were strongly inclined in the opposite direction^ and have only 
been driven to accept the spiritual idea when facts have multiplied aroimd 
them which, in then* judgment, could only be referred to earthly 

causes by 

" a base 

Abandonmeiit of Reason." 

' I win now proceed to consider the origin of the Mystical Writings, 
said to be the work of Spirits, with special reference to yom' objections to 
the claims of the Autographical Manuscript, executed on the night of 
Dec, 23d, 1851. As this is deemed the most reliable instance of direct- 
Spiritual agency, to which yoij have thought proper to refer me in your 
first communication, I need ofier no apology for making it the principal 
theme of this letter. The following passage sufficiently indicates the na- 



12 



A DISCUSSION. 



ture of your premises, and the rapid and convenient process by which 
you arrive at the. conclusion that Spirits had nothing to do with writing 
the names on the parchment : 

" If we are to fall back on the impression left on the public mind, that the 
spirits did not use the hand of the medium — you will find it difficult, I think, to 
convince sane men, that spirits wrote that parchment ; as, in that case, you will 
at once be obliged to admit, that they all had a suhsultus tendinum. ... In 
discussing this point, I shall assume that it is all the work of the medium, con- 
scious or unconscious — I care not which — spirits had nothing to do with it, and 
the whole is the result of the imitative mechatiic power of the medium, brought 
out by the abnormal magnetic state, which exists while he is -writing." 

It is, indeed, very easy to '■'■assume " that, but the assumption amounts 
to nothing because it is in opposition to the facts. Uunbelief may repeat 
the words with a thousand tongues, but the Facts, with theii' provoking 
invincibility, shall remain, unmoved 

' " By this abundance of superfluous breath." 

Your attention is now respectfully invited to the evidence deemed ne- 
cessary to authenticate the writings referred to, and, without further pre- 
liminaries, I here submit the following communication from Mr. Fowler : 

STATEMENT OF THE MEDIUM. 

S. B. Brittan : Bear Sir : I have been solicited by a mutual friend to send 
you a concise statement of my experience, as connected with some mysterious 
writings which have occurred in my room, n, fac simile of one of which appeared in 
number nine of the Spiritual Telegraph. I comply with the request, though 
in contraxiety to my inclinations, which would prompt me to shrink from any 
publicity. 

The original paper containing the autographs I found upon my table, about 
three o'clock one afternoon, on my return from business ; the paper used being a 
sheet of drawing-paper, which was incidentally left on my table, and which I am 
sure was blank when I left my room in the forenoon. The succeeding autograph- 
ical manuscript, a representation of which was published, was executed in my 
room, on a piece of parchment, left on my table, by direction of the spirits, for 
that purpose. This was wiitten on during the night, while I was in my room 
asleep. I would add that, many of the signatures on the parchment, were entire- 
ly strange to me, having never seen them before. 

I have also had several specimens of various oriental languages, written in my 
room, on paper which I could identify as my own, though the languages were 
unknown to me ThetJe have been written on, both when I have been in my room, 
and when T have been absent. Several of the languages referred to, I had never 
seen prior to my acquaintance with them through these mystical manuscripts, 
and of course did not know what they were, imtil I had submitted them to a 
linguist, who read them with facility. 

The first one which I received was, as I am informed through the kindness of 
Prof. Bush, a quotation from the Old Testament, written in Hebrew. The execu- 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAX. 13 

tion of this occurred about three o'clock in the afternoon, soon after I had re- 
turned from my business. I was alone in my room, when, through the sounds 
■which then occurred in my presence, I was requested to leave the room for the 
space of five minutes, during which interval they — "the spirits" — promised an 
attempt to write. I obeyed their request, and went into a room below, where 
sat my sister. I told her what' had transpired, and at the expiration of the fire 
minutes, we both ascended to my room. Instead of finding, as we had conjec- 
tured we should, some directions, written in English, we discovered this Hebrew 
quotation, the ink on the paper being still unabsorbed, although after experi- 
ments proved that the ink of a hand, heavier than that in which the Hebrew was 
written, would, on the same kind of paper, invariably dry in from two to three 
minutes' time. 

That these writings have not been imposed upon me, I know, because I have 
seen some of them icritten, I have seen them written in the day time, as well 
as in the night ; and that I was in no " abnormal magnetic state," I infer from 
the fact that my consciousness of the circumstances of outward life remained un- 
impaired. The ringing of the fire-bells, moving of engines, the tolling of the 
bells at the ferry, the paddling of the boat's wheels, and various other noises 
common to the City, were no less distinctly heard than at other times. 

That these writings were not perpetrated by myself, I have many strong proof:?. 
First : I had never seen any specimens of the languages in which most of the 
manuscripts were written, and even to the present date, I have seen no other 
specimens of one or two of the languages used. Second : That power which has 
communicated to us in our Circle, through the rappings and lifting of tables, 
professes to have performed this writing also. 

That these rappings and liftings are not the results of an " abnormal magnetic 
state," I have reason to suppose from the fact that, manifestations have been 
made in our Circle, in the light, palpable to the various senses of a// present, 
which, by far, surpassed, in point of power, the capability of any one in the 
Circle. But if this, too, with all the rest, is but a fancy, a dream, then is my 
whole life but a dream — a very real dream — and not altogether poetical in its 
course. 

Had I time and disposition, I might relate facts sufficient to fill a volume, in 
relation to this matter, the majority of which would favor none other than the 
Spiritual theory; but as I am no literary character, I will here leave the matter 
to the numerous others who are, and whose facts are doubtless as much to the 
point as my own. Yours truly, E. P. Fowler. 

New-Tork;, August, 1352. 

To the foregoing I beg lecave to add the subjoined statement of facts, 
which has been prepared by 3Ir. Charles Partridge, chiefly from the min- 
utes of the New-Tork Circle.* 

*'nie Xew-Tork Gircxe Tras organized on the first of August. 1851. for the purpose of maldn? 
careful observations concerning modern Spiritual phenomena. The Circle -n-as composed of the 
following named persons : Judge Gray, Edward P. Fowler. Miss A. L. Fowler. Dr. Gray, and lady. 
Dr. Hull, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Partridge. Dr. Warner. Dr. HaUock. and ladr. W. J." Baner. and 
lady, and Eohert T. Shannon, who hare heen accustomed to hold frequent meetings up to the 
present time. It T>-ill not of course be inferred that all of these parties have been present at erery 
meeting of the Circle, or that they have, in all cases, witnessed precisely the same phenomen,-{. 
It should be observed, however, that Judge Edmonds, Prof. George Bush" S. B. Brittan. Almond 
BoJ^ SamL Fowler. D. Minthoon, and others, have, on seveial occasions, particirated bv invitation. 



14 A DISCESSION. 

STATEMENT CONCERNING THE MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 

The authenticity of the Spirit-writings which have been given to this Circle, 
throuo-h Edward P. Fowler as medium, having been called in question by Dr. 
Kichmond, the undersigned beg leave to state, that they have been in the habit 
of attending circles with Mr. Fowler, for the investigation of Spiritual phenom- 
ena, for the last two years, generally once, and sometimes twice, in a week. 
During these sessions a great variety of demonstrations of spiritual presence and 
power have occurred, and numerous communications have been given, some of 
which may be thus briefly stated : 

Persons at the circle have been unexpectedly turned round with the chairs in 
which thej were sitting, and moved to and from the table ; chairs and sofas have 
suddenly started, from their positions against the wall, and moved forward to the 
center of the room, when they were required in the formation of the circle ; the 
persons in the circle have each successively lifted his own side of the table, and 
the invisible power has raised the opposite side correspondingly ; occasionally the 
spirits have raised the table entirely, and sustained it in air, at a distance of from 
one to three feet from the floor, so that all could satisfy themselves that no per- 
son in the flesh was touching it ; lights of various colors have been produced in 
dark rooms ; the table has often been rocked with great violence, and suddenly — 
and unexpectedly to the whole company — it has been instantly arrested and held 
firm and immovable, with the upper surface inclined to an angle of some forty-five 
degrees, when the lamp, pencils and other objects on the table, would slide or roll to 
the very edge, and there remain fixed as if riveted to the table ; a man has been 
suspended in, and conveyed through, the air, in all a distance of fifty feet or 
more.* The communications have been given in various ways, but chiefly in writ- 
ings and by the rappings, after the ordinary alphabetical mode. 

To establish the authenticity of the Spirit- writings through Mr. Fowler, the fol- 
lowing specific statements seem to be required : At the close of the session, held 
on the 17tli of November, 1851, the spirits — through the alphabet, and in their 
usual manner — said, " We wish to give you a sentence for you to find out and 
remember," when the following was communicated: " Debemos amar a todo el 
mundo, aun a nuestros enemigos." No person present on that occasion understood 
a word of this language, but we were subsequently informed that it was Spanish. 

At the sitting on the 24th of November, 1851, the spirits commenced with their 
signal for the alphabet, and the following message was communicated to the 
Circle : 

" My dear friends — I am happy to announce to you that the project which has 
engaged our attention for some years has at last been in part accomplished. 
I am, Benjamin Franklin." 

Question. Do you refer to what took place with Edward in the nights of Fri- 
day and Saturday last ? 

Answer. " Yes." 

Question. Was the writing in Hebrew — executed in Edward's presence — 
chosen by the spirits as significant of a new Spiritual Era ? 

* On occasion of one of tlie more remarkable exhibitions of power, here mentioned, Mr. Hen- 
ry Gordon -was in the Circle, and doubtless contributed essentially, by liis presence, to the 
visible displays of what we axe accustomed to term phj'sieal force. ' s. b, e. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 15 

The Spirit. " Partially." 

Here the colloquy Avas interrupted, and the spirits charged the medium as fol- 
lows — the alphabetical mode of communication being preserved, — " Edward, I 
wish you to get a book and note down very particularly what you have witnessed 
and will yet see." 

By Mr. Partridge. KI had been in the room could I have seen what Edward 
saw.' 

The Spirit. " Your sphere would not have admitted us to present ourselves, 
even to Edward." 

By some one — " Who was the small man that Edward saw in his room ?" 

Spirit — " The small man was Hahnemann." 

[The occurrence here referred to was the visible appearance of Spirits as men 
in Edward's sleeping-room, during the nights of Friday and Saturday. On the 
last mentioned night, a spirit wrote in Hebrew as follows— (Daniel xii, 12, 13) : 






I 



h 



<r 



On Thursday evening, December 11th, 1851, while specimens of writing in 
Hebrew and Sanscrit — executed by spirits in Edward's room a day or two pre- 
vious — were under examination, the signal for the alphabet was given and the 
following communication spelled : 

" Edward, put that paper on your table, and we will write a sentiment and 
subscribe our names ; then you may sign it too." 

A paper was accordingly placed on the table, and, on the following day, in 
the absence of Mr. Fowler, the words, " Peace, but not without Freedom " 
were written on the paper, together with nearly all the autographs which 
were subsequently executed on parchment — an engraved /ac simile of which was 
published in No. 9 of the Spiritual Telegraph. 

Subsequently on two separate occasions, viz., on the 18th and 22d of Decem- 
ber, remarks were made relative to the paper, and the signing of it by those of 
the circle who concurred in the sentiment it was supposed to teach. Some had 
signed it already, but irregularly, and in such a manner as to leave no room to 



16 A DISCUSSION. 

record its history, -whicli was regretted by all. At length the spirits said : 
" Burn THAT and we will, make another." This direction ■was obeyed; 
the paper was destroyed, and two sheets of parchment were procured and placed 
in a roll on Edward's table, and during the night of Dec. 23d, 1851, the same 
sentiment, "Peace, but not without freedom," was again written and fifty-six 
autographs attached, including all, or nearly all, the names on the first paper 
with several others.* 

At the next meeting, which occurred on the 25th of December, the sentiment 
and signatures being under consideration, the question arose as to what was pro- 
per to be written as the history of the manuscript, when the following message 
was received from the spirits : " Now agree upon what should be written on the 
parchment." The spirits then directed Dr. Gray, Dr. Hull, Mr. Baner and Mr. 
■ Partridge, to retire to another room and determine as to what should be writ- 
ten on the parchment. Dr. Hull was then designated as the one to execute 
the writing, which was done accordingly. It was then asked if the signatures 
were in each case executed by the will of each spirit whose name appears, or 
done by one operator for the whole 'i Answer; " Each for himself; by the aid 
of the battery." 

During the session on the 19th of .January, 1852, the spirits signified their de- 
sire to make a communication in Hebrew. Mr. Partridge asked who should call 
the alphabet, and received, for answer," The only one present ivlio understands 
it — George Bush." Professor Bush thereupon proceeded to repeat the Hebrew 
alphabet, and a communication in that language was received. f 

Many additional facts might be given, to show that Spirits communicate in va- 
rious languages through E. P. Fowler, but the above will suffice for the purposes 
of this statement. We can not allow the present occasion to pass without an ex- 
pression of the entire confidence and unqualified esteem with which Mr. Fowler 
is regarded by the members of the New-York Circle, and by those who know him 
generally. We have had an intimate personal acquaintance with him for two 
years past — some of us for a much longer period — and we have only known him 
as a high-minded and honorable young man. From the beginning he has steadi- 
ly refused to accept the slightest compensation for his time and services while 
employed in the capacity of medium. And we deem it but an act of simple jus- 
tice to Mr. F. to record the fact, that, on all occasions we have found him entire- 
ly unassuming in his deportment and eminently truthful in his life. 

R. T. Hallock,M. D., A. G. Hull, M. D., John F. Gray, M. D., 
L. T.Warner, M.D., W. J. Baner, Samuel T. Fowler, 

Almira L. Fowler, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Partridge. 

A brief analysis of the testimony, already presented, will be necessary 
in. concluding tbis part of my subject ; but I must first correct an error, 
into wbicb you have involuntarily fallen, and answer an objection that, 
in your mind, assumes an unreal importance. In speaking of the auto- 
graphs you are pleased to remark that, " The fii'st copy was made during 

*The man\iscript here refei-red to is the one afterward executed in cerography, and published in 
the Spiritual Telegraph of July 3d. 

f The splrit.s, through Mr. Fowler, have given numerous communications in many languages, 
some of which are already publi.?hed in the first volume of the SHEiajf^m, and others ■will continue 
to appear in that work. S. B. B. 



i 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 17 

the sitting of tlie Circle, tlii-ough tlie liand of a medium ; tte spirits not 
liking this told him to burn it," &c. Now this is altogether a mistake, 
since neither the fii-st nor second copy was made at the sitting of the Circle ; 
nor has any such statement ever been made or sanctioned, by any one ac- 
quainted with the facts in the case. Moreover, the spirits made no sort 
of objection to the manner in which their own naraes were executed in 
the original manuscript, nor did they start any objection. It was the 
irregular manner in which it was subsequently signed by the members of 
the circle — precluding the possibility of recording its history — that fur- 
nished the occasion of complaint from the members of the circle them- 
selves. 

But you are led to infer, from the rough appearance of the names, 
that if they were really written by spirits, the authors of this work must 
all have had the palsy except Stephen Hopkins, whom you presume to 
have recovered the free use of his nerves. Your diagnosis is as curious 
as it is unreliable. This peculiarity which seems to furnish the whole 
ground of your objection to the spiritual origin of the work, is not refer- 
able to the palsy but to the jparchment^ the surface of which was imper- 
fect, causing the ink to spread, while in a number of places a small fiber 
evidently adhered to the point of the pen, blotting several of the letters 
Where the lines are heavy, the ink spread more, and unequally ; the 
name of Stephen Hopkins, being wiitten in hair lines, does not exhibit 
the same roughness. So the writings executed on paper, by the same 
process, do not present the same appearance, for proof of which I 
desire you to examine the specimens in several different languages, pub- 
lished in the first volume of the Sheicinah, page 302. Thus the " sul- 
sultus tendinum " at once resolves itself into the inequalities of the 
parchment — and the abruptness of Dr. Richmond's conclusions. 

Let us now briefly analyze the evidence before us. 

1. It appears from Mr. Fowler's statement that, the writings consist- 
of communications in various languages to him unknown, and of which 
he had never before so much as seen a single specimen, written or 
printed. The names, alleged to have been written by Spirits, are found 
on examination to be/ac similes of their autographs while living, and a-. 
part of them were new and strange to the medium ; and it can be far- 
ther shown that, in several instances, the fad of the existence of such 
persons, in this world or any other, was wholly unknown to Mr. Fowler. 

2. That these writings have not heen forged and clandestinely cont- 
veyed to Edward's apartment, by some mischievous person in the flesh, 
is evidenced from the fact that, a portion of them have been executed^ 

2 



18 A DISCUSSION. 

in Lis presence, and in broad day-light ; and also by the repeated com- 
munications of the spirits through other media, and by a variety of modes, 
to the effect that they are, themselves, the authors of these writings. 

3. That Edward P. Fowler, while witnessing the execution of such 
portions of these writings as were done in his presence, was stili in 
his normal state — however his interior vision may have been opened at 
the time — is manifest from his -continued con.sciousness of external rela- 
tions and objects, and the perfection of his sensational perceptions. 

The testimony of the New York Circle may be thus summed up : 

1 . An invisible agency has been operating in the circle for two years 
past, producing a great variety of manifestations of power and intelli- 
gence — raising, moving, arrestingj holding, suspending, and otherwise 
disturbing numerous ponderable objects — and all in direct contravention 
of the laws which govern the realm of material nature. 

2. The agency that does all this has appeared in the circle — by the 
multiform exhibitions of its mysterious presence — from time to time, 
and by means of the alphabet has made intelligent communications, in 
several different languages, the import of which was not understood by 
the parties present. 

3. The same agency has, on numerous occasions and in presence of 
many witnesses, asserted its claim to the authorship of the written com- 
munications and autographs now under consideration. 

The facts and circumstances, already adduced, constitute a chain of 
evidence sufficient, it would seem, to produce conviction, even where 
there exists no previous " impression, more or less distinct, that it is the 
work of departed spirits." I can not, however, submit this interesting 
case to the final judgment of yourself and the public, without first soli- 
citing your attention to several collateral testimonies. The first is 
'formed of parts of a communication, from Prof. Gleorge Bush to the 
writer, dated New-York, March 27th, 1852, and published in the She- 

KINAH.* 

Mr. Brittan : Dear Sir: In compliance wich your request I willingly make 
a statement respecting the several communications in Hebrew, Arabic, Bengalee,t 
&c., which have been submitted to my inspection. ***** 

" Altogether the specimens are of an extraordinary character, such as I can 
not well convey by any verbal description. * * 

" Mr. E. P. Fowler, since I have become acquainted with him, does not at all 
impress me as one who would knowingly practice deception upon others, however 

*For tlie whole of this communication the reader is referred to the Shekinah, Vol. I., pp. 305-7. 
fThese writings in foreign tongues consist of the following : Sanscrit, Arabic, Hebrew, Bengalee, 
Persian, French, Spanish, Malay and Chinese languages. s. b. b. 



I 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 19 

lie might, by possibility, be imposed upon himself. He certainly has no knowl- 
edge of the above languages, nor do I think it likely that he is leagued in collu- 
sion with any one who has. A man who is versed in these ancient and oriental 
tongues would be, I think, but little prone to lend himself as a party to a pitiful 
scheme of imposture. It must, indeed, be admitted to be possible that Mr. Fow- 
ler may himself have copied the extracts from printed books, but I can only say 
for myself that, from the internal evidence, and from a multitude of collateral 
circumstances, I am perfectly satisfied that he never did it. * * In like man- 
ner, I am equally confident that he, though the medium on the occasion, had, 
consciously, nothing to do with a Hebrew communication which was spelled out 
to me in the presence of a circle of very respectable gentlemen, not one of whom, 
beside myself, had any knowledge of that language. * * * * 

Very respectfully, yours, &c. G. Bush." 

Mr. BaiTTAN : Dear Sir : In relation to the writing in various languages 
made in E. P. Fowler's room, and said to have been produced by spirits, I am 
free to say that, I have been congnizant of the execution of some of said manu- 
scripts, under circumstances physically precluding the possibility of their having 
been done by any human agency. 

With most of the languages written, I believe Mr. Fowler to have been entire- 
unacquainted ; and to the best of my knowledge and belief, he has no books in 
any other of the languages than Greek, Latin, French, and German, with the 
exception of a small portion of the New Testament in Syriac, ivhich came into 
his possession subsequently to the production of these manuscripts. 

For the last three years he has lived in the same house with myself, and spent 
much time in the same room, thus giving me an almost unlimited opportunity to 
discover any deception, had he been disposed to attempt anything of the kind, 
or to detect any hallucination, had any existed. His moral character I consider 
to be, in every respect, unimpeachable. Yours, &c. Martha H. Baner. 

Mr. Brittan : Dear Sir : I can in a few words reply to your questions res- 
pecting Mr. E. P. Fowler. He has hitherto sustained an unblemished reputation 
for honesty and veracity, and enjoyed the confidence of all acquainted with him. 

* * * I have evidence sufficient to my own mind that he had no agency in 
the writing of the different languages executed in his room, and purporting to be 
the products of spirits. Respectfully Yours, Almira L. Fowler. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 24, 1852. 

I leave this part of my subject with a single additional remark : If 
it be " difficult to convince sane men that spirits wrote that parchment," 
the reason will be found to consist in their obstinate skepticism, rather 
than in any defect in the testimony. , 

To prove that men, unaided by spiritual influence, possess powers ade- 
quate to the production of similar phenomena, you refer me to the case 
of a man who was " perplexed about the means of supporting his family." 
In this extremity, it is said that Swedenborg made him a visit and, in 
order to relieve his necessities, taught him how to construct a "shingle 
machine," which he subsequently " sold for a good farm, on to which he 



20 A DISCUSSION. 

has moved tis family." Now, having no knowledge of the facts in this 
case, beyond what is communicated in your letter I can not form a deci- 
sive judgment as to hoio far this invention is to he attributed to spiritual 
agency^ but the case, altogether, seems illy adapted to sustain your posi- 
tion. You personally testify that this man was " never noted for mechan- 
ical powers — his head indicates any thing but a mechanical genius — in 
fact " that " his life has been a tissue of intellectual and moral illusions 
and fancies ;" and this certainly affords presumptive evidence that the 
invention emanated from some source superior to his own mind ; and this 
conclusion is sustained and strengthened by the direct and positive testi- 
mony of the man himself, who affirms that Swedenborg gave him his in- 
structions. The fact — if indeed it be a fact — that a poor man — dis- 
tressed on account of his inability to provide for his family — was thus 
furnished with a " good farm," does not strike me as altogether too 
" ludicrous to be mentioned," nor was the object unworthy the mission 
of so exalted a spirit. I can not see how this case sustains the affirma- 
tive of the present question. Indeed, your hypothesis is most eniphati- 
colly contradicted by the witness himself, and should the remaining wit- 
nesses concur, it will require uncommon skill in the argument to estab- 
lish your position. Moreover, your ultimate success will demonstrate 
this singular proposition in metaphysics, viz : That extraordinary men- 
tal excitement — such as occurs but once in the lives of some men — is 
particularly favorable to a comprehension of mechanics ! 

Your next case is a protracted account of a man who " secluded him- 
self for months in an old ashery near a swamp ;" but you have neglect- ^ 
ed to show its connection with the subject under discussion ; and as its 
specific application is not altogether self-evident, I am constrained to 
pause for information on this point. What, I would gravely inquire, 
has that " man," the " old ashery," or the " swamp," to do with prov- 
ing that Spiritual Manifestations can " be properly accounted for with- 
out the agency of spirits ".^ And that infinitude of tcheels ! what is their 
relation to the argument against the spiritual origin of the manifesta- 
tions ? At present we can only conjecture. We are not thoroughly 
acquainted with the family of wheels — can not even mention their ap- 
propriate names — with possibly a single exception. If we mistake not 
there is one known as the overshot-wheel ! If those referred to by my 
correspondent were of this class, they perhaps illustrate the current ar- 
guments against Spiritualism. 

I have nothing to say of that new and peculiar phase of ' abnormal- 
ism,' which you say consists in being " simply discomfaddled." How 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 21 

■well the state may be adapted to the discovery of" perpetual motion," 
I am obliged to leave to the judgment of those who have enjoyed op- 
portunities for personal observation. 

The only remaining example referred to in your letter, affords no 
ground for controversy. I know full well that when the spirit is, in any 
considerable degree, temporarily withdrawn from the body — the interior 
senses opened, and the latent powers of the inmost being aroused to 
loftier action in their appropriate sphere — it is capable of accomplish- 
ing results that far transcend the mind's action in its earthly relations. 
My spirit finds a sacred repose in the solemn, yet cheering and beauti- 
ful assurance, that the partial exercise of those wondrous powers is not 
likely to be suspended, nor long confined to such limited and transient 
flights, but will be succeeded by a more glorious and Grod-like unfold- 
ing, when the separation from the body of earth shall be complete and 
final. 

Earnestly desiring to be guided by the spirit of Truth, and to receive 
its divine baptism, I am, Fraternally thine, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



SPIRIT IMITATIONS. 

DR, B. W. RICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

LETTER II. 

Many other examples might be cited, showing that mesmeric persons 
have imitative powers, far beyond what they possess in the natural 
state ; and it is easy to cite instances, that refer not only to mechanic 
and artistic power, but to singing, speaking, gesturing, mimicking, and 
to almost every other peculiarity which characterizes us as human be- 
ings. I shall, of course, assume that all mediums are, in various de- 
grees, mesmeric pei'sons, and hold myself bound to prove it, beyond a 
cavil, when I reach that point. There is already much harping on this 
point, with abundant assertion, that the mediums are in a perfectly nor- 
mal state, during the exhibition of the " spu-it " phenomena ; and, yet, 
nothing is plainer, to the eye of the practical mesmerizer, than, that 
they are most absolutely mesmeric persons. We will take one featiu'e 
of the mesmeric peculiarities, of the human body and mind, and see 
what we can find in it. Some three years since the country was filled 
with " Biological" experiments. These experiments, in Ohio, attracted 
much attention, and such was the intense excitement of the public 
mind, that in some places, parents and the public were obliged to 
interfere and stop boys from biologizing each other. The process con- 
sisted in stilling the audience, and fixing attention. Seats were then 
arranged, and the subjects called forward, consisting of girls and boys, 
young men and women, and often older persons ; and, seated by them- 
selves, a piece of coin was placed in the hand, or a small battery, com- 
posed of zinc, copper and silver ; the subject was directed to look at 
this for fifteen or twenty minutes ; the operator, meanwhile, would pass 
the back of his hand over his forehead, and occasionally grasp his thumb, 
to find the temperature. After fifteen minutes the battery was removed, 
and the operator would seize the right hand of the subject, with his left, 
and press the thumb firmly between the middle and ring-finger, on the 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 23 

back of the subject's hand ; then, looking the subject firm in the eye, 
would press the thumb of his right hand with great force, in the region 
of intution and clau'voyance — between the eye-brows, at the root of the 
nose, and request the patient to close his eyes — pronouncing in a very 
positive manner, " You can not open them." The subject, if subdued, 
could not open them, though all the time making great efforts to do so. 
The operator would then try the subject's powers to rise from the chair ; 
place his hands on his forehead, and tell him to take them off; then 
set his hands to whirling, and prevent their stopping, by the force of 
his will ; repeating, " You can not stop them" — and soon it would be 
found, that not only muscular motion, but the exercise of the senses, 
could be destroyed by the will of the operator. Taste can be oblite- 
rated, or changed ; memory destroyed, so that his name could not be 
recalled ; any picture, whatever, presented to the mind of the subject, 
he would see. Tell him he saw snakes, and he would become fright- 
ened, and rush with violence over the seats and benches ; say to him 
he was sleigh-riding, and he would instantly seize the reins, and 
drive the horses with great glee ; tell him he was a witch — an old wo- 
man in rags — and he would put on the character, and make confession 
of all the crimes with which you had charged him. Tell him he was a 
gay young lady, and another subject was about to court him, and a love 
scene would commence ; tell him he was cold, and he would shiver — 
his teeth chatter — he would stamp, and whip his hands about him, with 
great fury ; tell him he was warm — very hot — and he would begin fan- 
ning himself, fling off his coat, and, unless prevented, would divest him- 
self of all garments ; tell him that a tree of fruit was before him with 
oranges, apples, grapes and figs, and he would begin to fill his pockets. 
Sweep the room from before him and open the sky, and speak that the 
river of life, and a white throne was before him, that the judgment was 
set, and instantly the attitude of devotion and reverence would come over 
the subject — ^he would gaze with hurning eye, and rapt gaze, into the 
scene of glory ; take him to a lake side, and tell him a dead child was 
before him in the water, and he would wade in, take it in his arms, and 
lay it carefully down, and weep over it in deep pity. Bring before him 
the lightning's flash, the thvmder's roll, or proclaim a Grod in grandeur, 
and a world on fire, and, once in Covington, Ky., I saw a dozen subjects 
faU in intense fright — some onto the floor, some on benches, others sought 
to fly — and aU declared to the audience, that a shower of fii-e seemed to. 
be around them. 

Any image the operator sees fit to plant in the subject's mind is done 



24 A DISCUSSION. 

readily ; any passion, was readily assumed : reverence, revenge, vanity, 
love, hate, fear, mirth, joy, grief, or ecstacy, were all imitated at the 
biddino- of the operator ; and the images were, at the words "AU right," 
safely dispersed, and reproduced with the rapidity of thought — changing 
in a moment the action, and motions of the subject. Some affirm, that 
they are conscious of the delusion at the time ; others say they are not, 
but that it seems to be real ; and all admit that, no mental effijrt can 
resist the impression ; they follow the image as a reality ; it seems, at 
the time, a verity, beyond a doubt. What is singular, if the subject re- 
tain a single idea — the/orm of any physical object in the mind, at the 
time you endeavor to make the impression — you can not succeed. Let 
the subject think of an apple, a knife, a horse, a house, a field, or mea- 
dow, and no impression can be made on him. It seems necessary that 
the mind should be a perfect blank — divested of all ideas. The subject 
at the time is, to all appearance, in a perfectly normal state ; his mental, 
moral, and physical powers, seem machanged ; and he thinks at the time 
that he can resist yom- power over him ; but if he gives you his eye, and 
keeps ideas from his mind, you lead him captive by mental impressions. 
Tell him he is swimming, and he gets down on the floor, and thinks it is 
water ; tell him he is suffocating in water, and he will suffocate, unless 
you prevent him ; tell him he is struck in the head, and he falls, as if 
stricken down with a hammer. That a subject might be killed by a 
mental impression — by saying to him he was shot through the heart, or 
was struggling in water — is the opinion of all the operators that I have 
ever conversed with on the subject. The only variation from the normal 
state, that is at all discoverable, is, that the eye^ in most subjects, is clear 
and glassy, and has the ^^penetrating " look of the clear-seer ; it is, in 
fact, the same eye that is observed in some maniacs, and in consumptive 
patients ; it is clear, sharp, and fearful to look at. The hidden fires of 
the soul seem to burn through it, with intense force. I have watched it 
for months, and years, in consumptives, who often become clairvoyant 
under the wasting of vitality ; and, the eye kindles and sparkles, with 
more intensity, as they near the narrow house. 

All impressible subjects have, to a greater or less extent, this eye ; 
and, I think, that those who show it in early life, are natm-ally inclined 
to consumption — at least, all consumptives have it. 

The trait in these Biological subjects, I wish to mark most distmetly, 
is, that they have powers of imitation, that are perfectly amazing. A 

lad, in the hands of an operator, was told that he was Judge B ■, and 

■must make a temperance speech — (the Judge had a short, lame leg, and 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 25 

a peculiar way of ■vralking.) The subject came out upon the stand, drag- 
o-ino- his own leg, in imitation of the Judge, in so identical a manner, as 
to bring a recognition of it to the mind of every one who saw him. He 
then began to speak, and so imitated the individual he was personating, 
that it raised a great laugh. TeU. the subject he is a dog, and going to 
bark, and he begins and imitates exactly — the bull, cm-, or vrhifFet — so 
that when a dozen subjects are all barking on various keys, it forms as 
fine an idea of a midnight bedlam of barking dogs, as can well be ima- 
gined. The subject will sing, in imitation of those whom he has heard 
sing, when impressed to do so. The tact with which these magnetic 
persons imitate the voice, appearance, acts, and peculiarities of others, is 
too apparent to be denied; and yet their physical condition, in no wise, 
resembles the orduiary mesmeric state ; and some, on that account, at- 
tempted to say that it was not a magnetic phenomenon ; but the absurd- 
ity soon refuted itself — as the subjects thus reduced soon showed j?ecz/imr 
magnetic traits — and some were easily put to sleep ; others were so im- 
pressible, that I have seen an operator di'aw a dozen of them from their 
seats, by the magnetic force of his hand, standing at the distance of many 
feet. The first move of the hand would bring the head forward, then 
the body, and, by adding his voice, " You will stand up," they would, 
while resisting with the will, in spite of themselves, stand up, and follow 
his hand around the room. 

So in the case of mediums : they are very often highly magnetic per- 
sons, and might, as a rule, be thrown into the ordinary magnetic state, 
by a good magnetizer. This power of mi^aiiow among mediums, is va- 
rious ; but distinct in many. Some draw maps, purporting to come from 
0, school-mate ; others draw likenesses; others go through all the move- 
ments of the water-cure — that, of course, would be Presnitz' sph'it — as 
with Dr. Eeh ; others speak in voices imitating the dead — but they can 
imitate the living just as weU ; others hear sounds — the voice of a wife, 
or child, or friend — as in the case of Judge Edmonds. 

Now, is it possible for the human brain to be in a condition to hear 
and see, and do things, not seen, or done, or heard, in the ordinary nor- 
mal state.* An English gentleman, says "Walter Scott, was iU, and was 
told by his physician, that he had lived in London too Ipng, and lived too 
fast ; and advised him to retire to tbe country and ruralize. One of his 
troubles was, that a set of green di-essed dancers would enter his di-awiog- 
room, and go through with their evolutions, and retii-e. He knew it was 
an illusion ; but could not resist the annoyance, or the impression they 
made on him. He retned to his country-seat, and, in a few weeks, got 
* See Appendix, Note C. 



26 A DISCUSSION. 

rid of his visitors. He concluded to remain out of town, and sent to 
London for the furnitm-e of his old parlor, to be placed in his cou|itry- 
house ; but, when it came, and was arranged in the room, the corjps de 
ballet, dressed in green, all rushed into the room, exclaiming, " Here we 
aU are again — here we all are again." He had associated in his mind 
the furniture and the dancing-apparitions, and when it returned, they 
came with it, and, as he thought, spoke with voices. I have elsewhere, 
as you will see, given numerous instances of a similar character. Even 
the excessive use of wine will induce a state of brain, in which the per- 
son ttiinks he hears voices, and sees spirits ; but on close examination it 
will be found that it is the work of the abnormal powers developed in 
the brain by stimulus medicines, or intense thinking This unravels 
the voice Judge Edmonds heard. This long-continued meditation on 
death, with night, solitude, loneliness and darkness, had so impressed 
him, th'at he thought he heard a sound ; and it was an exact imitation 
of the voice of his wife. In the case above referred to, hearing was 
not only ailecied, but the organ of color was involved in the hallucina- 
tion, and the green figures were as plain before him as real persons. 
This is, always, one of the phenomena of ghost-seeing that the Seer 
associates — form and color, voice and acts — with the spectre. 

In my next letter I shall call your attention to imitations, in style of 
composition, and give some examples of these wonderful exploits. The 
imitations of hand-writings here, by mediums, have been most accurate 
in giving signatures — as in the case of the Declaration. Of course, the 
medium has the most accurate knowledge of signatures, in all cases. 

B. ^Y. KICHMOND. 



EEPLY TO DE. EICHMOND. 



LETTER II, 



Dear Sir : — I -will venture to hope that your second letter, on -wiiat 
you are pleased to denominate " Spirit-imitations," may be interesting 
to our readers, notwithstanding its relation to the present question no 
■where appears. It will be perceived that the form of the proposition 
makes it your privilege to lead, while it is my duty to follow by a care- 
ful analysis of the facts and reasons — if any are presented — on which 
you rest your theory. The particular direction and bearing of the dis- 
cussion, for the present, must, therefore, depend on you. If you think 
proper to leave the subject of our correspondence, and to confine your 
observations to miscellaneous facts and experiments, in the production 
of which no spuitual agency was ever pretended to be exercised, I can 
only express my unwilhngness to follow you in these erratic excursions, 
and leave the reader to infer the necessity which prompts this abandon- 
ment of the cpestion. Why not proceed at once to prove that the phe- 
nomena alleged, by men of discriminating minds, to be sphitual in their 
origin, can be properly accounted for by referring them to the known 
laws of matter, and the acknowledged capabilities of the human mind, 
while subject to its earthly relations and dependencies .' Nothing can 
be accomplished until you attempt this. If the achievements of modern 
material philosophy enable you to dispose of the subject in a proper 
manner, let it be so disposed of, now and directlj^ Only in this way 
can you rationally expect to answer the demands of the occasion. If 
Science has placed the key in your hands, we have a right to presume 
that you will use it, to unlock the secret chambers in which Mystery 
has concealed the springs of the present spuitual movement. Disclose 
to us the authors as well as the instrumentalities of the Manifestations. 
If the agents and the means are all of earth, they must be open to 
human inspection, and cognizable by the senses. Let us see them, and 
let the specific relation of each particular fact to its appropriate cause, 
be clearly demonstrated. If you fail in this, you accomplish nothing. 
It is in vain to record miscellaneous phenomena in this loose way. A 
scientific analysis and classification are demanded; and when the facts 



28 A DISCUSSION. 

are properly classified, it will still be incumbent on you to prove that the. 
laws of matter and the powers of the human mind, while confined to the 
hody, are adequate to the production of all the various phenomena which, 
have been attributed to spiritual agency. Now, if you refuse, or neglect, 
to grapple earnestly with the question; if you fail to furnish illustra- 
tions that bear directly on the issue ; if you shrink from looking the 
real facts fairly in the face ; and make no serious attempt to overthrow 
the spiritual theory, you give me nothing to do, but simply to acknow- 
ledge the receipt of your letter, and to admonish you that its contents 
are wholly foreign to the subject of the present discussion. 

Your letter mainly consists in a description of the modus operandi of 
" Biological experiments.'''' The object of this lengthy account of h-rele- 
vant matters, I am unable to comprehend or perceive. Sm-ely no man 
ever conjectured that the ordinary experiments in Biology were produced 
by any other than merely human agency. Did any one ever intimate 
that Spirits had aught to do in their production } Never ; and after all 
that has been said of the insanity of spiritualists, I have yet to find one 
crazy enough to confound the two even in his dreams. If no one — ^be- 
liever or skeptic — ever pretended that the ' Biological ' vagaries were 
produced by the spirits of departed men, your labor is all lost, and your 
facts and illustrations appear like so many impertinent visitors who obtrude 
themselves on unsuitable occasions. All the results, in ' Biology,' which 
you profess to have observed, I have myself produced — and far more 
wonderful experiments than those — except such as consist in degrading 
GrodUke natures to a level with dogs, and other inferior beasts, which I 
have neither performed nor allowed myself to witness. But the nume- 
rous and beautiful illustrations of the active and receptive powers of the 
human mind, are easily distinguished from all the higher demonstrations 
of an invisible spiritual agency. It can be clearly shown that the two 
classes of facts are essentially diverse, and that it is impossible to refer 
them to the same source. From the elucidation of this point, it will 
distinctly appear that the experiments, performed by the lecturers on 
' Biology,' are by no means identical with the phenomena which we 
ascribe to the spirits. 

1 . In the ' Biological ' experiments there is a visible human operator, 
to the action of whose mind every physiological change, mental impres- 
sion, and mechanical movement, can be directly referred. In the 
Spu-itual Manifestations, no human operator can be found, or demon- 
strated to exist. 

2. In ' Biology,' the phenomena occur in harmony with the tvill or 



RlCHilOND AND ERITTAN. 29 

desire of the operator, and in conjunction with certain manip^ilations. 
But the illustrations of the Spiritual presence and power, often occur in 
opposition to an earnest desire ; they resist the most rigorous effort of the 
wili, and are not dependent on any process, similar to the one described 
in your letter, as necessary to induce the ' Biological ' results. 

3. Only men and women are found to yield to the experiments in ' Bi- 
ology,' while, in the Spiritual Phenomena, cAflir5 and tahks are among t he- 
most impressible .subjects. 

Here allow me to suggest that, if your theory be founded in truth, it 
will admit of an application to the dead as well as to the living subject ; 
for the same power that moves the hitman medium, also moves the 
wooden table, and other inanimate objects. Now, to demonstrate the 
ONENESS of the agents and forces employed in the ' Biological ' experi- 
ments, and the Spiritual Manifestations, it will be necessary to produce 
the same effects on dead matter, that are wrought on living, sensitive, 
and intelligent beings. Let Dr. Bichmond, therefore, proceed to put 
the table and six chairs into the Elect ro-biological state, and it shall suffice. 
We will insist on no terms that will infringe the laws on which tbe phe- 
nomena are supposed to depend — will not even ask to be present at the 
experiment, lest our skepticism might disturb the ' Biological ' cir- 
cuit, but will accept the testimony of three credible witnesses. If 
the subjects move off; if the table and chairs stejD to the music, lift- 
ing their feet so as to mark all the variations in the time, we will demand 
no more, but accept the experiments in ' Biology ' as appropriate illus- 
trations of the subject before us. This is not unreasonable. Your 
hypothesis is worthless, unless it will cover all the essential facts. It must 
explain the movements of gross ponderable bodies that have no life, as 
well as the delicate vibrations of the hving nervous sj^stem. Until you 
can illustrate this implied unity of causation, by some such practical ex- 
periment, or by reference to incidental occurrences transpiring under the 
law, your position is merely assumed, and the assumption is quite too 
illogical and absurd to admit of serious discussion. To relate what 
Biologists have done in Ohio, in order to subvert the legitimate claims ot 
Spiritualism every where, is to aim as wide of the mark as those 
" Who dive at stars, and fasten in the mud." 

If your closing observations, concerning the susceptibility of certain 
persons to a species of hallucination, were designed to intimate that all 
who have seen, heard, or otherwise witnessed the Manifestations, are thus 
hallucinated, and that the results, so far as they seem objective, are all 
imaginary, I need not dispute the assumption, for the reason that it is 



30 A DISCUSSION. 

not likely to be accredited by any one. Moreover, if I have misappre- 
hended the design of youi- concluding remarks, I must be excused for 
not perceiving that they have any bearing whatever on the present issue. 
Trusting that you will find it convenient to cultivate more intimate 
relations with the question, 

I remain, yours fraternally, S. B. BRIT TAN. 



SPIRIT IMITATIONS. 

DR, B. W. RICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN 

LETTER III. 

As miicli sh-ess is laid on " imitations " of -writings voice, and gestui-es, 
of alleged Spii-it-manifestations, as proof positive of the ability of spirits 
to return to our sphere, I will follow up the subject in another letter. 
The great power of certain individuals to copy and munic other persons 
is well known to aU. The pantomime among the ancients was an art, 
and was carried to great perfection ; it was, indeed, a profession among 
the higher classes. This art was mainly mimicry, by motions and ges- 
tures. This power rarely exists now in great perfection. In this coun- 
try it has been cultivated by but few as a profession, yet many persons 
possess the gift. One will mimic sounds, another actions and motions, 
and more rarely we find persons who have great tact in imitating hand- 
writing. I was showing the " Spirit Declaration " to a mechanic of my 
acquaintance, and he took a pen and sketched afac sijnilc of a dozen or 
two autographs, from inemory, of persons whom he had not seen write in 
many years — the hands were various, and difficult to execute. That he 
would give a good/rtc simile of that paper, in a few hours, I have not a 
doubt. He has promised to do so. 

N-^w the question recm-s. How can a person, who has no marked abil- 
ity as an imitator, bring out such a paper .? I answer. He is no doubt a 
somnambule, and his peculiar magnetic state unfolds his imitation of 
writing. A few years since, while on a visit to New-England, I left a 
lunatic at Brattleborough, Vermont. While examining the cmiosities 
of the institution, I was shown a representation of the Garden of Eden, 
executed by a young lady, confined in the institution. The grounds 
were laid out with great skUl, and the whole ornamented with moss and 
shrubbery in a tasteful manner. Adam was in the " midst of the Gar- 
den," dressed like a modern dandy, with 21. fine leaver on his head and an 
ttmlrdla under his arm — it might possibly rain. Eve was a jolly-looking ' 
Miss with a wasp-uvtist and modern bonnet — regaling herself among the 
flowers of the garden. Superior artistic skill was apparent in the execu- 



32 A DISCUSSIOTN". 

tion of this historic scene — far beyond the reach of the normal powers of 
the young lady. 

Other specimens of woi-k were shown me, and in fact may be found 
in every lunatic asylum in the world, showing clearly that the excited 
brain ef the maniac takes on new powers and evinces new skill in con- 
structing and imitating. 

AVhile passing through the rooms of the Mount Pleasant Asylum, 
near Boston, the Superintendent ushered me into a large room, and 
without any notice at all, introduced me to " Mr. Grod Almighty " ! 
At first I was a little dashed at being introduced to so august a presence, 
but soon recovered my equilibrium so as to do the honors with becoming 
reverence. I saluted him by his title,, gave a cordial shake of the hand, 
accompanied by a low bow, which put his capricious majesty in excel- 
lent hmnor, Before me stood a stout-built Yankee, with a large, fine 
head, around which a strip of cotton cloth was skilfully wound, so as to 
form a kind of turban. His eye was restless and piercing, his bearing 
full of pomp and consequence, his face wearing a benignant smile while 
you treated him as the great " I AM." He was anxious to know what 
we had in Ohio that was great and singtdar. On being informed that 
we raised great fields of corn and multitudes of horses, he expressed a 
very anxious wish that he " had forty thousand millions of acres of corn, 
with a kettle big enough to boil it in, and horses enough to eat it. 
And," said he. with great vehemence, stretching up his mighty self to 
a full highth, " we would have one everlasting chanking." All his 
wants and wishes seemed to be on a magnificent scale, in good keeping 
with the almightiness he had assumed to himself. His reverence had 
become an artist, and from his buttons he had suspended the wide end 
of half-a-dozen pewter spoon-handles, whittled to a point, and a hole 
through the wide part, and strung on a piece of tape. With this rude 
metal for a pencil, and the walls of his room for his canvas, the deluded 
man had drawn out on the walls of his room a huge fish — the head be- 
ginning at a point in the wall and the body carried around the entire 
room, the tail resting near the head of the monster. The body, in eve- 
ry part, was filled with figures, signs, hieroglyphics, images, and symbols 
of ideas which reveled in the old man's fancy. Each sign had its ap- 
propriate meaning, which he recounted with regularity, or altered to 
suit his fancy. Over twenty years has he toiled in bringing out this 
great ideal of his universe. 

It would be a profitable and curious labor to visit the asylums of the 
insane, and study the new powers of mind, brought out by their new 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 33 

mental condition. This specimen was formerly a merchant, and not 
noted for abilities to draw. If still living, his great fish still adorns his 
room where he has resided for near thirty years, reveling in the idea 
that he was, in fact, the invisible Jehovah, in an earthly tabernacle. 

The somnambule presents some curious examples of these suddenly 
acquu-ed powers. Major Elliot, Professor of Mathematics at West 
Point Military Academy, relates of a young lady, of a cultivated mind, 
who was attacked by fits of somnolence. When she came out of the fit, 
she had lost every kind of acquired knowledge. She began anew the ele- 
ments of study, and made good progress for foui- months, when a second 
fit occurred, and she suddenly acquired aU she had previously known, 
and forgot all she had acquired during the interval. A third attack 
obliterated aU memory, as in the first. In each alternate attack she 
acquired and lost — fii-st her original knowledge, and then that which was 
acquired during her intervals. She suffered these attacks for fom* years. 
During the healthy interval she was remarkable for the lemity of her 
pemnanship ; but during the second interval, ia which she lost all her 
original knowledge, she wrote a very awkivard hand. Persons seen dur- 
ing the healthy interval were not recognized during the paroxysm, and 
vice versa. 

Sir Walter Scott speaks of a young lady who had been insane two 
years. She had been able, only when sane, to form a few letters ; but 
during her insanity, learned herself to write very perfectly. She can 
not attend to any one who attempts to learn her to write. During her 
sane periods, she loses wholly her ability to write or read ; but when 
her insanity returns, these arts both return with it, and she reads and 
writes with great facility. 

Dr. Prichard relates the case of a lady who was subject to fits of in-- 
sanity, which would pass off suddenly, and she would instantly recur to. 
the train of thought she had been occupied with during her lucid inter- 
val. She would sometimes finish an unfinished se7ite?ce, beginning at 
the very loord where her attack had interrupted her train of thought 
when her lunacy came on. She would recur at onee to the thoughts 
and words she was engaged with when the previous attack went off. 

This same curious state is observed in mediums when the train of' 
thought is interrupted, and when they return to it they begin at the 
very toord or sentence they had left off at — often finishing a sentence or 
a word left unfinished. Persons under the influence of liquor often 
lose memory, and recover it again when sober, forgetting wholly the 
acts committed while drunk ; and again, when intoxicated, suddenly 

3 



34 A DISCESSION. 

remembering what was done in a previous debauch. This also occurs 
with some narcotic medicines. Other powers are acquired strangely 
when in the somnambulic state. Persons dream out facts which were 
lost to memory. Some somnambules get up and go to work— others 
prepare a horse and ride — others go to the top of dwellings— others 
compose and write out poetry or facts which were occupying their minds. 

I think myself warranted in the inference that E. P. Fowler, in a 
similar state, unknown to himself, arose on the night of the 22d of De- 
cember and affixed, with his own hand, the names alleged to be writ- 
ten by the Spirits to the parchment, called the " Spirit Declaration " 
This brings out a new fact in mental philosophy. 

The foregoing cases seem to indicate a kind of double memory, and 
it is explained on the same principle as double consciousness. We have 
a double brain, and each seems capable of exercising a separate con- 
sciousness ; and in this singular mesmeric mood we find old impressions 
obliterated and new ones acquired, and when the ordinary state returns, 
new impressions are lost and old ones return. To my mind, it seems to 
be the alternate action of the right and left brain ; first one predom- 
inating, then the other .'' The memory of the abnormal state seems to 
be far more active, vigorous, and vigilant, than in the normal state — 
persons often remembering forgotten things, and repeating poetry, and 
performing in music in a very wonderful way. Every one has observed 
the changes that occur in persons upon whose minds some sudden and 
intense excitement is brought to bear. The moon-struck lover, when 
unsuccessful, is at once converted into a poet, and writes love ditties to 
liis wayward anwrosa. G-rief, especially from the loss of children, will fre- 
quently set mothers to writing poetry. Some of the most remarkable 
poets, ancient and modern, have had the powers of their harps suddenly 
exalted into celestial notes by deep grief. How deeply was the whole 
life of Byron colored by disappointment with Mary Chaworth. Burns 
never sang so sweet as when tuning his harp to the praise of '' Mary, in 
Heaven." Petrarch's enchantments were never so deep as when over- 
■ whelmed with the death of Laura. Milton's most glowing scenes in 
" Paradise Lost " are drawn from his experience with his wayward and 
wilful wife. Cowper's habitual melancholy and pensive gloom was 
deepened into a full flood of pensive numbers by his disappointment 
with his cousin. Tasso's miseries and sorrows put new songs into his 
heart, and a more celestial fire into his inimitable numbers. Abellard 
was swept into the wild current of poetic fancy by his passion for He- 
:Ioise — ^losing all interest in more manly studies and pursuits, he aban- 



RICHMOXD AND ERITTAN. 35 

doned himself to writing amorous verses. Mirabeau, the French orator, 
when on trial for his connection with a celebrated French lady, holding 
up to the court a lock of hair in which poison was concealed, burst into 
such a fit of eloquence as to carry his acquittal. Tallien, when no- 
tified by a scroU, soncealed in a cabbage-leaf and thrown from the win- 
dow of the prison, that his intended bride and Josephine were to be 
beheaded on the morrow, rushed with fury into the Assembly, ascended 
the Tribune, and moved a decree against Robespiere as a tyrant, and in 
an instant the butcher knew that his doom was come. Poe, that wild 
and wayward genius, received an impulse from early disappointment, 
that hurried him through life in a dark and devious path — the image 
of Annible Lee never ceased to haunt him. Pinel teUs of a maniac 
in the Bicetre, who was insane on the subject of the revolution, and de- 
claimed in his cell, with ardor, force, and eloquence, on that subject ; 
and always with a force and elegance far above his mediocrity of tal- 
ent. Like phenomena were witnessed all over France during the matu- 
ring of the reign of terror. The most eloquent and powerful harangues 
were heard from the damp cells of gloomy prisons, by male and female. 
So much beauty, eloquence, talent, and misery, has rarely gi-aced the 
annals of an insane nation.* 

These periods of intense intellectual power in nations are periodical ; 
they come like the return of a comet from trackless space. Such was 
the age of Christ — such was the asre of Constantino and Athanasius — 
of Attila and Alarie — of Stilecho of Tamerlane, Napoleon, and our 
own Revolution. They were periods marked by great men — by great 
actions — ^by bold thoughts ; the mind breaks old schackles — strikes out 
new paths — sees new truths — unfolds a page in the great drama of hu- 
man life and human progress. 

Newton marked one of those perioJs in the history of physical sci- 
ence. Luther another, in the history of free thoughts and free con- 
science. Another of those periods is approaching. Men wUl think, 
and think in spite of thrones, principalities, or powers. The Church 
need not mutter through her teeth, and cry, hold ' She has betrayed 
her high and eternal trust. The autumn of her revolution has come. 
Her winter will be dark ; but the spring of a new life, of new forms, 
and new truths, will unfold itself to the world. What if a few do be- 
come insane ; the world had better be insane than live eternally in the 
old age of a stupid, unthinking sanity. A little wholesome excitement 
will do the world good. It purifies the elements, like the thunder storm, 
cleansing the physical world of dross nnd vap'ir. 

* See Appendix, Note D. i 



36 A DISCESSION. 

Let man discuss the destiny of his spirit. What subject more fitting 
to occupy his thoughts. " If a man die, shall he live again } " What 
evidence have we on that momentous question ? What light is reflected 
from the present state into the eternal future ? What light streams into 
our spirits, from that far-off realm to which the millions are hurryiug .? 

B. W. RICHMOND, 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 



LETTER III. 



Dear Sir : In your second letter you virtually proposed to account 
for the Spiritual Manifestations, by reference to certain experiments in 
' Biology,' but the peculiar modes and phenomenal aspects of the two 
were seen to be so essentially diverse as at once to preclude the accept- 
ance of any hypothesis based on the alleged unity of causation. Ac- 
cordingly, the biological oracle is now permitted to descend from the 
tripod, the dum spirit having been interrogated in vain for a solution of 
the Spiritual Mysteries. 

In the letter now before me various agents, conditions, and fimetions, 
are coerced into the service, none of which, with a single exception, 
appear to be at all at home in the strange relations they have been made 
to assume. The first of these is " The great power of certain indi- 
viduals to copy and mimic other persons." We are informed that a 
species of mute representation, called '•'■ pantoriwm.y^a,^ carried to great 
perfection among the ancients^^'' and from this fact we are expected to 
infer that all spiritual phenomena among the moderns are exhibitions of 
the same kind. It may be a somewhat fastidious regard for law and 
logic, which restrains me, but I can not jump at conclusions after such 
a fashion. The invisible agents are rapidly gaining a mysterious and 
irresistible power over thousands. The old man, the youth, and the 
little chUd ; venerable matrons and timid maidens ; grave doctors, 
judges, and divines ; the solemn and religious, as well as the gay and 
thoughtless, are alike subject to unseen masters. Have they all at once 
become ambitious to excel each other in this species of acting .? If, 
indeed, the present Spiritual Manifestations consist merely in panto- 
mimic display, the fact must be susceptible of proof, and we wait for the 
evidence to establish our conviction. In the mean time, the idea that so 
many intelligent, thoughtful, and devout persons, are merely engaged in 
a sort of fantoccini with tables and chahs, unconsciously, or for their own 
amusement, can only be received when reason shall resign her empire. 
Moreover, upon the supposition that the phenomena are regulated by 



38 A DISCUSSION. 

some unconscious action of the minds of the media, how does it happen 
that inanimate objects act so conspicuous a part in the phenomena ? I 
have personally witnessed many exhibitions in which the table was not 
merely a " star actor," but it appeared to sustain all the principal char- 
acters, and the remainder of the company were only supernumeraries, 
or passive spectators. Herein, it appears to me, we greatly excel the old 
masters, and all the antique exhibitions of pantomime to which you 
refer. With us, not men alone, but even talks and chairs seem to be 
mysteriously gifted with a power to act fer se, and are all included in 
the dramatis j)erson«. 

There is one class of facts that may be comprehended under the head 
of what you are pleased to term Seirit-imitations, many of which 
must be admitted to sustain a somewhat intimate relation to the subject 
of this discussion. I desire to dispose of this class, now that you have 
summoned me to their consideration, and pursuant to this purpose, it 
wiU be necessary for me to analyze the phenomena which you have 
merely introduced, without regard to order or any attempt at classifica- 
tion. That one person may imitate another, in his chirography, intona- 
tion, in a variety of scenic exhibitions, and, in short, in numerous ways 
was, I may venture to affirm, never disputed by any one. We employed an 
artist to engrave the Spirit-writings, which formed the principal theme of 
my first letter, and he succeeded in producing a very fair imitation^ but what 
has that circumstance to do with the production of the originals } Noth- 
ing, whatever ; and if I have been enabled to show that those manu- 
scripts were really exeaoted in the particular manner already described, 
you accomplish nothing by proving that the work might have been done 
in some other way. 

It is plainly intimated in what you have written that, one of two hy- 
potheses must be adopted in accounting for the ' imitations : ' Either 
they are the voluntary work of the media, resorted to in order to pro- 
mote deception, or they are unconsciously performed by the media — 
while they are in an abnormal state. You have assumed the latter hypo- 
thesis to be the true one, and have, therefore, resigned the privilege of 
resorting to the theory of fraud or voluntary counterfeiting, in any 
emergency. 

I will now speak of the essential conditions on which the more re- 
markable " imitations " are ascertained to depend, that we may deter- 
mine their precise relation to the question under discussion. It is known 
to all persons, who have made critical experiments in Animal Magnet- 
ism, that, the magnetic sleeper, especially in the intermediate stages 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 39 

between outward sensation and inward lucidness, is preeminently sub- 
ject to tbe control of the magnetizer. In a greater or less degree the 
entranced ones experience all the emotions of the experimenter. Their 
sensations, thoughts, desires and actions, are not unfrequently one with 
his. To develop these results, two parties are of course required. 
First, a ftrson to he imitated, who must sustain an active or positive 
mental-electric relation to the subject ; Second, the imitator, whose con- 
dition is required to be one of complete passivity. These conditions 
are necessary to render the latter receptive of impressions from the for- 
mer. When the relations are properly adjusted — and this may occm* 
without inducing a state of coma, and even without direct physical 
contact — a union is established, through the vital aura or electric me- 
dium which pervades the living body. The nervous system of the 
subject is thus temporarily conjoined to that of the experimenter, when 
the impulses, thoughts and purposes, of the active or positive mind, are 
electrically conveyed to the sensorium of the subject, from which they 
react through the nerves of motion, and find expression in appropriate 
organic functions. Permit me to illustrate this part of my subject by 
an interesting example. The account from which the following is ex- 
tracted, was originally pubhshed in the Manchester (Eng.) Courier : 

" HaYing thro-wn two girls into the sleep, Mr. Braid sat down to the piano, and 
the moment he began playing both somnambulists approached and joined him in 
singing a trio. Speaking of one of the girls, Mr. Braid said, although ignorant 
of the grammar of her own language when awake, when in the sleep she could 
accompany any one in singing songs in any language, giving both notes and 
words correctly. Mr. B. requested any one in the room to put her to the test, 
when Mr. Schwabe played and sang a German song, in which she accompanied 
him correctly, giving both notes and words simultaneously with Mr. Schwabe. 
Another gentleman then tried her with one in Swedish, in which she also suc- 
ceeded. 

" Jenny Lind being present, now played and sang a slow air, with Swedish 
words, in which the somnambulist accompanied her in the most perfect manner, 
both in the words and music. Jenny now seemed resolved to test the powers of 
the somnambulist to the utmost, by a continual strain of the most difficult rou- 
lades and cadenzas, including some of her extraordinary sostenuto notes, with 
all their inflections from piaiiishno to forte crescendo, and again diminishino- to 
thread-like pianisimo, but in all these fantastic tricks and displays of genius by 
the Swedish Nightingale, even to the shake, she was so closely and accurately 
tracked by the somnambulist that several in the room occasionally could not 
have told, merely by hearing, that there were two individuals singing — so in-- 
stantaneously did she catch the notes, and so perfectly did their voices blend audi 
accord. Jenny, having been told that the somnambulist might be tested in some. 
other language, commenced siging ' Casta Diva,' in which the fidelity of the im- 



40 A DISCUSSION. 

itation, both in -words and music, fully justified all that Mr. Braid had alleged 
regarding her powers." 

I miglit furnish many illustrations of this singular faculty from the 
records of my own experimentSj and from a variety of other sources, 
hut this single example will suffice to indicate the general law, and the 
specific conditions, on which the phenomena depend. Here allow me 
to remind you that two things are indispensable to success in every ex- 
periment. 

1 . The somnambule must be en rapport with the particular individ- 
ual — directly or through the mind of a third jjerson — whose thoughts, 
words, and actions are to be imitated ; and in no case will the subject 
personate, or especially regard, any one until this sympathetic union is 
established. 

2. The proposed results must in no case transcend the individual ca- 
pacity of the experimenter, since his powers of necessity determine the 
functions of the subject. 

A superficial investigation will satisfy any one of the entire correct- 
ness of these propositions. Visit any number of susceptible persons ; 
speak to them while they are abstracted from the sphere of their out- 
ward relations, and are in sympathy with another, and they will not re- 
gard you. This is always the case, and the fact indicates the existence 
of an absolute law. When, therefore, the somnambule begins to ' imi- 
tate,' or personate, an individual, it demonstrates the fact that the imi- 
tator is in communication with the person so represented. Now who, 
what, and where, are the parties personated } I answer, they are per- 
sons of all ages and countries. Are they always present in the body ? 
No. On the contrary, individuals who departed this life many years 
ago, who were wholly unknown to the medium, and forgotten by all the 
members of the circle — if indeed they were ever known by any one 
present — are often announced by name^ and the peculiarities of their 
persons, manners, business, habits of thought, and modes of action, are 
rendered with equal fidelity. Now, as the imitative subject can only 
represent the persons with whom he is intimately associated — in the 
manner already described — we are forced to conclude that the medium, 
in such cases, is en rapport with the spirit of the person represented. 
The argument may be thus briefly expressed ; 

1. The "Imitations" are produced by persons in a somnambulio 
state, or while the medium is otherwise externally unconscious. This 
if 0^1 assuvie. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 41 

2. Persons in this state can only imitate^ or personate, those with 
whom they are en rajpport. 

3. When, therefore, the dead, who are unknown, or forgotten, are 
thus represented, the fact proves the medium to be en rapport with the 
departed sphit. 

This conclusion derives strong confirmation from a variety of incidental 
cu'cumstances and attendant phenomena. The name and age, circum- 
stances of birth, place, condition, education, disease and dissolution, and 
a great number of particulars not specified in this connection, are dis- 
closed in words which all can understand, and, at the same time, the 
power that claims to communicate thus, through the medium, also acts 
on dead matter in a startling and truly wonderful manner. Indeed, a 
large class of these manifestations have never been successfully counter- 
feited, by minds in the body, and from their nature we are sure they 
never can be". I most emphatically deny that mortals, unassisted by 
sphitual agency, have ever been able to produce so much as a tolerable 
semblance of the real facts. A single example, under this head, will 
serve to illustrate the character of these representations, and, with the 
foregoing observations, must suffice in proof of their spiritual origin, un- 
til it shall become my province to lead in the discussion, when I shall 
have occasion to introduce others equally remarkable. 

Last winter while spending a few days at the house of Mr. Eufus 
Elmer, Springfield, Mass., I became acquainted with Mr. H., a medium. 

One evening, H , Mr. and Mrs. Elmer, and myself, were engaged 

in general conversation, when — in a moment, and most unexpectedly to 
us all — H. was deeply entranced. A momentary sHence ensued when 
the medium said, Hannah B is here. I was surprised at the an- 
nouncement, for I had not even thought of the person indicated for 
many days, perhaps weeks or months, and we parted for all time when 
I was but a little child. I remained silent, but mentally inquired how 
I might be assured of the actual presence. Immediately the medium 
beo-an to exhibit signs of the deepest anguish. Rising from his seat he 
walked to and fro in the apartment, wringing his hands, and exhibiting 
a wild and frantic manner and expression. He groaned in spiiit, and 
audibly, and often smote his forehead and uttered incoherent words of 
prayer. He addressed me in terms of tenderness, and sighed and ut- 
tered bitter lamentations. Ever and anon he gave utterance to expres- 
sions like the following : 

" Oh, how dark ! What dismal clouds ! What a frightfal chasm ! 



42 A DISCUSSION. 

Deep — down — far down — I see the fiery flood ! Hold ! Stay ! — Save 
them from the pit ! I 'm in a terrilole labyrinth ! I see no way out ! 
There's no light ! How wild ! — gloomy ! The clouds roll in upon me ! 
The darkness deepens ! My head is whirling ! Where am I ! — " 

During this exciting scene, which lasted perhaps half an hour, I re- 
mained a silent spectator, the medium was unconscious, and the whole 
was inexplicahle to Mr. and Mrs. Ehner. The circumstances occuj-red 
some twelve years before the birth of the medium. No person in all that 
region knew aught of the history of Hannah B , or that such a per- 
son ever existed. But to me the scene was one of peculiar and painful 
significance. The person referred to was highly gifted by nature, and 
endowed with the tenderest sensibilities. She became insane from be- 
lieving in the doctrine of endless punishment, and when I last saw her 
the terrible reality, so graphically depicted in the scene I have attempt- 
ed to describe, was present, in aU its mournful details, before me ! 

Thirty years have scarcely dimmed the recollection of the scene which 
was thus reenacted to assure me of the actual presence of the spirit. 
That spirit has since informed me that her present life is calm, peaceful 
and beautiful, and that the burning gulf, with all its horrible imagery, 
existed, only in the traditions of men, and in the fitful wanderings of her 
distracted brain. 

I may here very properly conclude. Concerning the cases of insan- 
ity and the effects of drunkenness I will speak, if necessary, when I am 
able to perceive the point they are designed to elucidate. The exam- 
ples, selected from history, in general, illustrate the fact that the men- 
tal forces sometimes converge and find an outward expression in the un- 
usual power and intense activity of a single faculty, and that a variety 
of circumstances in life condu.ce to this unequal development and exer- 
cise. The facts are quite interesting in themselves, but wholly irrele- 
vant, and their introduction, in this connection, is not the happiest indi- 
cation of that maturity of thought which the profound importance of the 
subject demands. 

Your concluding observations assui-e me that yom" tendencies are lib- 
eral and progressive, and they inspire the hope that you will yet see, in 
the revelations of the Present, new and tangible evidences of the soul's 
immortal life, and of the interest which the departed yet feel in the 
welfare of mortals. Yours fraternally, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



SPIRIT IMITATIONS. 

DR B. W. EICmiOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 



LETTER IV. 



Dear Sir : I have received tlie second letter sent you for the 
Telegraph. You express an unwillingness to follow me ' in erratic 
excursions^ and leave the reader to infer the necessity which prompts 
the abandonment- of the question.' 

I first offered you a discussion. You declined, and offered me " two 
columns a week" in the Telegraph, to present such facts as might 
throw light on these mysterious occurrences. I accepted the offer and 
sent you a letter touching the " Spirit-declaration," as published in 
number nine of the Telegraph. I had seen but one copy, and that 
but an hour. It struck me as the work of a medium or somnambule. 
My second letter followed, in a few days, after which, you proposed a 
discussion. While that was being settled, I wrote a third. Your 
readers will see at once that neither of the numbers sent could have 
particular reference to the particular form of the question^ subsequently 
presented, being written before it was agreed on. But those facts most 
clearly bear upon a peculiar manifestation of mind, into which you 
might inquire, instead of lecturing me on my course. Of necessity 
great latitude must be allowed both parties, and I would beg the 
forbearance of your readers, in getting this difficult subject before them. 
All the friends of the new theory, aided by numberless sphits, are my 
opponents. I ask you to be gentle, and not press me too hard, for I 
am turned back on the study of Mind and Matter, while you can, if you 
choose, consult daily the countless hosts of sympathizing spirits, whose 
intellects have been expanding in the celestial spheres for years and 
ages — and now offer their evidence that they are knocking at our doors. 

But to return : My first impression was that a medium wrote the 
names on the parchment, and as I was a little mistaken about the 
cause of the spirits ordering Edward to burn the fii-st autogi-aphs, I will 
call attention to a disagreement in the two accounts. In the ninth 
number of the Spiritual Telegraph, you say, after the spirits had 



44 A DISCUSSION. 

ordered Edward to put a paper on the table, " in accordance with the 
above directions, Edward placed a paper on the table, in his sleeping- 
room, which was duly written on in the course of the nighty by forty- 
three spirits." In Telegraph number twenty-two, E. P. Fowler 
says, " The original paper containing the autographs I found upon my 
table, about three o'clock, one afternoon, on my return from business 
— the paper used being a sheet of draicing paper, which was in- 
cidentally left on my table, and which I am sure was blank when I left 
my room in the forenoon." In the ninth number of the Sp. Tel. you 
say, " The subject of Kossuth's mission having been incidentally 
mentioned," the spirits ordered E. to put a paper on his table, after 
they had subscribed — then " all might sign it." In the twenty- 
second number of the Sp. Tel., R. T. Hallock and others say that, on 
the eleventh of December, while specimens in Hebrew and Sanscrit 
were under examination, the spirits told Edward to put " that paper on 
his table and they would subscribe ; then yoib (E.) may sign it too." 
This committee say it was written on in the day time, while the 
account in the ninth number of the Sp. Tel. says it was " duly written 
on in the course of the night." 

The account in number nine of the Sp. Tel. says the paper was 
left on the table by direction — the committee, R. T. Hallock and 
others, agree — while Edward declares, in the twenty-second number of 
the Sp. Tel., that it was incidentally left. Men in a normal state 
certainly ought to agree in so palpable a matter. The point at issue is, 
•whether fifty-six different hands, or wUls, wrote those autographs, or 
one hand. 

Spiritual Telegraph number nine : " When Dr. Hull asked 
whether each spirit executed his or her name on the parchment," they 
answered, emphatically^ " Yes !" 

Spiritual Telegraph number twenty-two, it is said, when asked it 
each spii'it executed his own signature, or one operated for the whole } 
the answer was, " Each for himself, by the aid of the battery." What 
battery } Do the spirits have to connect their will, or hand, to the pen 
by a battery .? Will you explain .? I hold that those signatures are 
clearly the work of a single hand. I have shown the autographs to 
many good writers — it strikes all as the work of a trembling and 
cautious hand. The ink spreads in some names — but mark : 

1. The difference in the name of J. Q. Adams and Step. Hopkins. 

2. The wave in the hair-line in Hancock's J, and also in the quirk 
under Franklin's, Fulton's and Hull's name. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN- 45 

3. The name of Fitch, Grreen, Maylor, Jackson, and J. Q. Adams 
— all show a cautious, waving motion, or the autographs belie them- 
selves. 

4. At the left of Daniel's Hebrew a set of marks occur — and also at 
the left of his name — which can be nothing else than trembling hair 
marks. 

I have seen medimns write in this suhsidtios method — but that spirits 
have such a tremor is doubtful, as the names of John Adams, 
S. Hopkins and Daniel's show. Daniel's name written at the bottom, 
from the right, ends with a trenndoxhs movement of the pen, which 
most incontestibly shows that Daniel was excited, or he had palsy, or 
possibly thought of the lion's den. 

1. With the exception of Penn, Jefferson, Coles, Hancock, and 
Jones, the entire names on the autographic scroll show the writer to 
be accustomed to a rolling or circular movement of the hand. 

2. The names were executed in groups, and the first that arrested 
my attention were, Roger Sherman, John Adams, Step. Hopkins, Rob. 
Morris, Lewis Morris, J. Otis, P. Henry. The second, B. Franklin 
Benj. West, Sam. Adams, D. P. Madison, James Madison, James 
Monroe, John Penn, and Richard Henry Lee. The third, PhU. Liv- 
ingston, John Paulding, J. Fenimore Cooper, and James K. Polk. 
The fourth, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Jas. Hull, * * * * (can't read it,) 
and S. Skinner. The fifth, Gr. Whitefield, M. Kosciusko, and Charles 
Carroll. The sixth, Geo. Washington, J. Marshall, Martha Washing- 
ton, Rob. Fulton W. H. Harrison, Jno. Trumbull, and Andrew Jack- 
son. The seventh, T. Knox, Nath. Green, Alex. Hamilton, John 
Fitch, and John Maylor. The eighth, Rowland Ellis, H. Bell, Joseph 
C. Neal, and Edgar A. Poe. The ninth, Y. Q. Sanford, Jas. N. 
Fowler, R. Partridge, and J. Harris. The tenth, B. Gray, C. Gray, 
Abby Fowler, and J. Q. Adams. They resemble the Madison and 
Kosciusko group. Jefferson and John Dickinson have a resemblance. 
Wm. Penn, G. Coles and Paul Jones are similars. Hancock is dis- 
tinctive and alone. Among the " immortal " signers, who attended the 
immortal meeting in Edward's room and affixed their names on the 
parchment, only fourteen appear, to notify America and the world that 
they were back and seeking to make known that they still existed. 
Where were the rest } Echo answers, where ? — for it would seem that 
all should, if possible, be on hand, and " hang together," as Franklin 
said on a certain occasion : a baker's dozen, and one over — and those 
happen to be the men whose names are most easily counterfeited. 



46 A DISCUSSION. 

Let us notice tlie exactness with which they have written their old 
names — attempting, as they did, to imitate, they would be likely to get 
them as near as possible : 

Hancock used to raise his hand before making his H, and carry his 
loop over ; in this case he puts them together ; and his flourish used to 
end at the left, but in this case it ends to the right of the center. B. 
Franklin, on the old Declaration, wrote his name Benj^- , with a curious 
F ; in this case, he imitates his name signed to a letter to Mr. Strahan, 
but boggled in his small r, and partly imitated the one in Poe's name. — 
(See Sparks'' Life of Franldin, page 392.) Phil. Livingston, in the 
old Declaration, wrote a sharp hand ; in this paper his hand is round, 
and he was in such a hurry he forgot to dot his i's, as usual. Eoger 
Sherman used to connect his o and g ; in this they separate. Step. 
Hopkins — having got cured of his palsy — improves on his hand ; he 
carries the stem of his first p up higher than usual, and slips in Frank- 
lin's k, with a loop — he used a plain stem formerly — a compliment to the 
Doctor, probably. John Adams used to begin his A at the top ; but, 
as it is convenient, he begins it at the bottom — in imitation of every 
other A of the kind on the scroll. — Large love of approbation. Rob. 
Morris forgot how to begin his R, and squats his name more than usual ; 
he used to write better, but now, don't write as well as father Hopkins. 
Lewis Morris has a roll on the right of his M, and forgot also to make 
his quu'k right — writes badly. The chivalrous Carroll bungled his racy 
old hand, and left oiF the proud affix "of CarroUton." Sam. Adams 
missmade his m, and left off the semicolon ; begun his A, too, at the 
bottom — he once begun it at the top. John Penn looped his h — in- 
stead of his old ste?n — and moved his hand less free in making his P. 
Jefferson did well — has lost his art and his old way of looping his last 
f — has progressed the loop to the right. Richard Henry Lee has looped 
both his h and his y, and writes badly on parchment. Francis Light- 
foot Lee made sad work : looped his h, and dotted his first i — formerly 
he dotted the last one. 

This maybe the work of an " overshot-wheel," " superfluous breath," 
or " diving at stars and sticking in the mud ;" but, lest I be again 
charged with " abrupt conclusions," I call attention to the capitals : 

Take J, in the four James', in John Adams and J. Q. — all begin at 
the top, and look related. Four others are varied, but have the same 
movement. See the L's, in Lewis and the two Lees. The A, in 
Abby, in the three Adams' and in Alex. — all begin at the bottom, and 
arc cast in the same mold. The S, in Sam., Sherman, and Skinner. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 47 

The H, in P. Henry, H. Bell, Hamilton, Harrison and Hopkins — tie 
two in Henry Lee and Hull, are also identities. See the W, in West 
and the "Washingtons : Geo. used to loop his "\Y, and dot between Gr. 
and "W. Notice, also, the T, in Jefferson and Kosciusky. Look at E, 
in Ellis and Edgav. The crossing of the t, in but, not, without. Fitch, 
Lightfoot, and Hamilton ; and, also, the horizontal marks under the 
sentiment — all executed by the same motion. The dotting of i is char- 
acteristic of a single hand. The o, in Kosciusko, Gr. Washington, Roger, 
Joseph C. Neal, Carroll, &c. The finish of the H, in Harrison, is not 
characteristic, and the W is nearer like that in Wm. Paca, than Harri- 
son's hand. The m, in Freedom and Sherman ; the r, in Freedom, 
Edgar, and Franklin, are alike. See the d's in the two Madisons, 
Pauldmg, Richard, Sam. and J. Q. Adams. Note the finish of the R, 
in Rob. and Richard. The G, in Coles, is but little varied from the Gr 
in Geo. Ross — old Declaration. The R, in Rowland, is moddled from 
R in Rutledge, and the E, in Ellis, is suggested by the E in Edward. 
The B, in Braxton, suggested the B in Bradford. The small t, in 
West, Martha, and Nath., all indicate one movement. 

To you, this may all appear critical — over-much — and while I see 
evidence immeasurable in the grand system with which God has 
garnished the heavens — that man is not made to waste his life in a few 
short years, and go out forever — and also, that the laws of the Moral 
and Physical Universe utterly forbid the return of his liberated spirit — 
you, and many men of sound minds, find the evidence of his future life, 
and return to earth in a few names scrolled upon parchment, under 
very peculiar circumstances. 

Now, why " burn up" that first autograph } Was it because it 
might show that the " spirits, aided by the battery," could not execute 
their names twice alike t Why not keep it to show that fact, and to 
transmit, as a heavenly memento, to future races } 

Why send Edward from the room, when about to wi'ite Hebrew } 
It appears his sphere was not incompatible ; they had visited him at 
other times. The ink, too, that was %ndried. Just write in characters 
as large as those and let them dry, and re-wet them with ink, and you 
will gain the two mimites'' time he makes in the two cases. Once the}^ 
wrote when he was gone in the day tiine, and once they wrote while 
asleep. Yes, they of old "stole the body of Jesus while we slept." 
Edward, I observe, is accustomed to dratving, by the reference to 
paper used for that purpose — and of course used to forms, sizes, 
similars and resemblances in line^ and curves and circles. He gets 



48 A DISCUSSION. 

communications in a variety of strange tongues — and we find in his 
possession books in " Greek, Latin, French, German and Syriac" — 
after a certain time. Now, Mr. Fowler is, doubtless, what you all 
suggest — but the " opinions" and " beliefs" of a thousand persons, that 
this or that person don't think another capable of such deception, and 
that they did not see him or her do such and such acts, amounts to less 
than nothing. There is a Hooseness'' in the whole affair, into which tricks, 
that would make angels weep, may be woven. In that autographic 
scroll lives the evidence, to my mind — internal — unevadable — unalter- 
able — unmistakable, that a single hand wrote every name ; design, clear 
as light, is stamped on it :* 

1. The trembling movements. 

2. The round circular movement of the writer. 

3. The groups, as indicated above. 

4. The resemblance of each name in the group, and all the groups, 
in a general motion, and a slow and cautious action of the hand. 

5. The identity in capitals and small letters; crossing of t, and dots 
of i, showing a close identity in those minor motions. 

6. The great departure from the original. 

7. Edward was there " asZcep." Why not make sure your test, and 
lock therooniy leaving him out — they had wrote lefore when -lie was gone — 
and " guard the door by a band of soldiers," to see that no one stole the 
parchment : 

The facts, on which such momentous questions hang, must be more 
firmly knit — more iron-linked. 

I have taken measures to bring this autograph to the test of the best 
penman in the land. Will you do the same, and republish the cut of 
the autographs, that new subscribers may have it to study, as I have 
suggested } Yours truly, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 

Jefferson, Ohio, Oct 13, 1852. 

* See Appendix, Note E. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 



LETTER IV. 



My Dear Sir : It is true that the original proposal for a discussion 
came from you, and when, in my answer, I offered the columns of the 
Telegraph, as the vehicle through which the public mind might be 
addressed, it was most distinctly understood that I should reply. 

In attempting to excuse what seems irrelevant, in your three letters 
on Spirit-imitations, I can not think you are extremely fortunate. 
You assume that the question was not understood at the time those let- 
ters were written. In this, your memory is as much at fault as your 
facts and logical consistency. It was understood from the beginning 
that we were to discuss the origin of the so-called Spiritual Manifesta- 
tions. The specific form, or verbal imbodiment, of the proposition, 
could scarcely render any class of facts relevant or irrelevant, and when 
the real import of the question was mutually comprehended from the 
first, what more was required ? Moreover, that the first form of the 
question was to be such as to give you the affirmative, must have been 
clear enough to your mind ; otherwise you surely would not have led off 
with so much freedom. To suppose- that Dr. Richmond would rush to 
the conflict, like a blind war-horse to the battle, without knowing what 
he is contending for, or whether indeed there is anything to be achieved, 
is to withhold the credit due to his reputed sagacity. Is it not suffi- 
ciently evident, in view of these considerations, that my correspondent, at 
least, did understand the question — its verbal construction as well as its 
general import .? If other evidence be wanting, to settle this point, it is 
contained in a brief note — the first received from your hand after the 
letters on " Spirit-imitations" were written. I had previously observed, 
in a private communication, that you had omitted 2i formal acceptance, of 
the proposition, to which you responded thus : '•'■ I supposed I had accept- 
ed of your proposition, with barely explanation enough to guard against 
misapprehension. " 

If I fully comprehend your meaning in the remark that, " great lat- 
itude must be allowed both parties," it seems proper to say that, it does 
not express any necessity of which I am personally conscious. The 



50 ■^ DISCUSSION. 

real ground of the controversy is sufficiently extensive — is far more 
than I can even hope to occupy — and when I get so far ' out of my 
latitude ' as to lose sight of the question altogether, a timely ' observa- 
tion ', on your part, will set me right. I trxist I shall not be so unfor- 
tunate as to infringe, in any manner, the rules of friendly discussion. 
Allow me to assure you, dear sir, that I shall esteem it a privilege to be 
as " gentle " as possible, taking care, of course, not to confound gentle- 
ness with general debility. The " countless hosts " of which you speak 
may possibly be spared from actual service, for the present, and until 
the opposition to Spiritualism shall develop a real emergency. Highly 
as I esteem their presence and sympathy, it is not because they give me 
an undue advantage over my neighbor, nor are they capable of doing 
aught that you are unwilling to attribute to the agents at your command. 
" Vital Electricity," " Biology," "Abnormal Conditions," " Panto- 
mime," " Vacuum," etc., constitute a host scarcely less numerous and 
certainly far more mysterious. 

The discrepancy, of which you speak, is only apparent. It is confined 
to one or two unimportant particulars and does not exist, even in ap- 
pearance, in the complete testimony of the witnesses, as furnished by 
themselves and published in my first letter. It is frankly conceded that 
the account, as rendered in number nine of the Spiritual Telegraph, 
contains a slight error, and I am happy to have this opportunity to ex- 
plain the manner of its occurrence. When we published the autographs, 
I had recourse to the book containing the minutes of the proceedings of 
the New-York Circle, and hastily copied such portions of the record as 
seemed to be necessary to a general understanding of the subject. The 
mistake occurred in the process of transcription, and your humble ser- 
vant is, therefore, alone responsible, while the testimony of the witness- 
es remains unimpeached. 

Your letters clearly enough indicate the unsettled state of your own 
mind, with respect to the origin of the phenomena in question. In 
your first communication you came to the following conclusion : " The 
WHOLE is the result of the imitative mechanic power of the medium, 
brought out by the abnormal magnetic state, which exists while he is writ- 
■ing.''^ It is true you did not attempt to prove that Mr. Fowler possessed 
any such power of imitation, or that he was in an abnormal state, either 
when the autographs were executed, or at any other time in the whole 
"history of his life. Of the Spirit-writings, you " had seen but one 
copy " of a single specimen, " and that but an hour." And yet, with 
'this superficial investigation, you, in three lines, peremptorily decide 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 51 

the -wlnole controversy, so far as it relates to this class of phenomena — 
decide, too, in opposition to the evidence, and without the slightest re- 
gard to the judgment of learned men who had carefully examined the 
originals. And after this summary manner you undertake to dispose of 
the facts and the -witnesses together, with as much ease and complacency 
as a police magistrate commits petty offenders who disturb the peace. 

In your second letter, the inference seemed to he in favor of some 
biological hallucination ; hut how the state was induced, by whom, and 
for what purpose, did not appear. Nor did you attempt to show by 
what mysterious process dead matter was " biologized " with as much 
facility as the living human being. You were reminded that all the 
agents, refen-ed to in your letters, were utteily powerless to move disor- 
ganized and lifeless matter ; while it is clearly demonstrated, by numer- 
ous actual occurrences, that the power behind the Manifestations through 
living media, does produce analogotts effects on a variety of inanimate 
objects. But the biological theory did not afford a satisfactory solution 
of the mystery — did not appear to satisfy your own mind — and it was, 
therefore, materially modified in your third letter. 

Our credulity was next challenged by the improbable hypothesis that, 
the whole country was being converted into a theater for certain scenic 
exhibitions, and that thousands of sensible men, before engaged in a va- 
riety of sober pursuits, had all at once turned actors ! Or that a singular 
species of insanity had mysteriously endowed a great number of persons 
with extraordinary mental powers, such as sane people do not possess. 
But here the old difficulty reappeared. It was not so easy to determine 
how insentient things made such astounding proficiency in the arts and 
especially in Pantomime. That the theory in question would even ap- 
ply to the sentient subject was no where made manifest, and certainly no 
alienation of reason would tolerate its application to inorganic and life- 
less forms. But many strange things had transpired. Electricity had 
learned to converse ; the table had become skilled in music and danc- 
ing, and would beat time with its foot as accurately as the singing-mas- 
ter. 3Iental excitement had become an 'inventive mechanic,' and 
insanity was proficient in the elegant and useful arts ! But how all 
this came to pass, agreeably to yom" hypothesis, remained to be ex- 
plained — and still remains. 

From the tenor of your fourth letter, I judge that your theory has 
been again metamorphosed, and that the last change is sadly retrogres- 
sive. I had indulged the hope that my friend would not find it neces- 
sary to abandon his very charitable theory fa- the last resort of skepti- 



53 A DISCUSSION. 

cism. But so it is, and that you are fairly over — committed to the side 
of voluntary fraud — appears from the following passage in the letter 
now before me ; " The opinions and beliefs of a thousand persons, that 
this or that person don't think another capable ot such dece-ptlon^ and 
that they did not see him or her do such acts, amounts to less than 
nothing. There is a looseness in the. whole affair, into which tricks^ that 
would make angels weep, may be woven." Such is ever the last resort 
of unbelief — an open denial of the facts, however well authenticated, 
and the condemnation of the witnesses. Hitherto you have had the 
candor not to call the integrity of the medium in question ; but now, the 
whole, in your mind, assumes the aspect of deliberate imposture. If the 
claims of popular skepticism must be sustained at all hazards, let the 
work be done at the expense of those who worship its material gods. I 
will retire from no ordeal instituted by Reason and Philosophy. I care 
not how severe the analysis, or how searching the criticism ; but you are 
bound to respect private character and human testimony. In your in- 
difference to these, you illustrate the following lines of the Poet : 

" Critics to plays for the same end resort, 
That Doctors wait on trials in a court : 
For innocence condemn'd they'ye no respect, 
Provided they've a body to dissect." 

All your> observations on the microscopic imperfections of the auto- 
graphs, strike me as pointless and puerile. Suppose they were far less 
perfect than they really are ; would that affect the validity of the direct 
testimony concerning their origin, and the peculiar mode of their esecu- 
tion .? Not in the slightest degree ; and I can well afford to let your 
criticisms go to the public with this passing illustration : I have before 
me a communication from a gentleman who is reputed to be a scholar. 
On examination I find that a number of words have been incidentally 
omitted ; others have been abbreviated, sometimes without the use of the 
apostrophe. No invariable rules are observed in the punctuation. The 
same letter is variously made, and seldom twice precisely alike, there is 
no method in these mistakes and omissions ; these, and numerous tiifling 
errors, appear to be chiefly the result of accident and a hasty manner of 
execution. Now while I have direct and positive proof, that this com- 
munication is really from my friend, the force of the evidence is in no 
degree diminished by finding fault with his chirography, or any trifling 
peculiarities in his style. I have received one letter from my corres- 
pondent, which does not bear his name at all. All other letters from 
Dr. Richmond, which have come under my observation, have his auto- 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 53 

graph at the bottom. Should I contend that this letter is a forgery, be- 
cause the autograph is wanting, any one acquainted with the facts, and 
familiar with the existing evidences of its authenticity, would regard me 
as a mere eaviler. And yet to matters far less than this, your letter is 
chiefly devoted. 

Your " measures, to bring the autographs to the test of the best pen- 
man in the land," may amuse othei'S and furnish yourself with agreable 
pastime, but they do nothing to establish your hypothesis. You may 
prove that the autographs can he coimterfcited ; but that^ no intelligent 
man ever doubted. Indeed I stated distinctly, in my last letter, that our 
engraver furnished a very /air imitation of the Sphit- writings ; but I in- 
sist that, this proves nothing concerning the manner in uhich the orig- 
inals were produced. In all such efforts, therefore, you labor as one 
who beats the air. 

I am extremely anxious to consider the more important facts of the 
Manifestations, without further delay. Will you have the kindness, my 
dear sir, to introduce them, and to exhibit their alleged relations to 
physical causes ? It is not sufficient to assume that the facts are depend- 
ent on any particular cause, material or spiritual ; every position must 
be proved. If it be possible to vindicate any earthly hypothesis, let it 
be done, at once ; but any attempt of this kind must comprehend all the 
various phases of the manifestations, or it will signally fail. Disclose to 
us, then, the power that moves ' dead matte?-.'' A subtile influence per- 
vades the fibers of the wood, and they vibrate like the nerves of the liv- 
ing animal body. This fact alone, in the absence of your explanation, 
appears to be sufficient to explode every material hypothesis, and to 
force the rational mind back to a laith in some diviner energy. This is 
a material point, and you are required to show that some one, at least, 
of the agents to which you ascribe the Manifestations, has power thus to 
arrest the great laws of matter ; to produce a strange semblance of vital 
action, and of all mental functions — among elements that have no volun- 
tary motion — no thought — no life. Will you tell us how the woody 
fibers are made to quiver like convulsed muscles ? How do creatures 
that have no Ufe in themselves, no innate power of motion, yet move as 
if instinct with life, and feeling, and thought ? Whence the mystic 
voices that come to us from the inert and silent elements — the voices 
that speak of the forgotten Past and of the unopened Future .? Mysteri- 
ous power ! that thus realizes, in the most literal manner, the poetic im- 
agery of the Psalmist ! Objects, motionless as the hiUs, now pass before 



54 A DISCUSSION. 

us ; cold and voiceless things speak to man, and ' the very trees of the 
wood leap and rejoice.' 

Hoping that you may be able to disclose the grand secret of these cu- 
rious revelations, I remain, Very cordially Yours, 

S. B. BRIT TAN. 



PHYSICAL FORCE.-ELUIDS. 

DR B. W. PJCHiMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN 

LETTER V. 

Dear Sir : I must of necessity drop for a time the subject of Spirit- 
writing, and bring forward the points most deeply mystical in this new 
set of Spiritual wonders. What I have previously written will take its 
place, in due time, in the discussion. 

In discussing the " physical demonstrations," it is necessary to attend 
to /orce and _^?«(^s, as /orce-agents. What is force .^ Simply matter, 
put in motion. A mass of matter, at rest^ has no force, but is inert. 
The earth, save the force of attraction, at rest, would have no power to 
move other bodies ; but, in its wild career around the sun, should it 
come in. contact with another globe, its /orce would be immense. 

Two balls, of sixty pounds each, at rest on a marble slab, would have 
no power to move each other, or other bodies around them ; put these 
balls in motion, and you have a force — equal to then- size and velocity. 

Water, in a state of o-est, has no force to move other masses of water 
— attraction would serve to keep its particles in contact — but at rest, it 
moves nothing. Put it in motion, and it becomes a fearful element — 
shattering the strongest combinations of matter known to man's inventive 
genius. So of a small mass of water, in the bed of the lake, untouched - 
by heat or air, it is harmless — but open it a path and it rushes with 
power down the mountain-slope, sweeping away all objects that oppose 
its course. 

Steam — a still lighter fluid — at rest, is harmless, and impotent as a 
force-agent ; but put in motion by heat, its ^ower is increased in pro- 
portion to its rarity compared with the surrounding atmosphere. A 
harmless vapor, pent up and forced into a state of expansion and ex- 
treme rarity, it requnes the strongest combination of cylinders of iron to 
hold it in abeyance, and then, at times, it tares open its iron covering, 
and scatters death and confusion around it. Moved by a regulated ac- 
tion, it seizes the ponderous boat, with its cargo of matter and animals, 
and glides gaily over the bosom of the placid lake — or rides boldly into 
the face of the tempest and wild war of waves. In another form, we 



56 A DISCUSSION. 

see it trails the huge locomotive, with a gorgeous retinue of cars, freight- 
ed with life and hope, at a frightful speed over the iron track, across 
streams, through tunnels, and sets the whole down in an hour at twenty 
or fifty miles from its point of starting. 

Electricity — a still lighter fluid — has still more fearful power : it can 
not be chained ; bolts, bars, the tall oak, and the solid rock, are torn by 
its movements into whistling shreds. 

Strange though it may seem, we find fluids increase in strength, as 
force-agents in proportion as they become more rare — or depart from 
the solid toward the i?npoiiderable. Let us study this element for a short 
time : All space is evidently filled with this fluid, and in it all other 
fluids and solids seem to float. Each earth, with its atmosphere — our 
solar system, the countless orbs rolling around us in sjDace — are sus- 
pended in, and revolving in, this imponderable fluid. 

Water, when piled up in waves, plays strange freaks with the tiny 
vessel, floating on her bosom. Steam, when swelled beyond a certain 
point, tears the vessel in pieces with perfect ease. Electricity, when 
accumulated into waves — like water — seeks its level, or equilibrium, 
with such force that all solid physical elements give way before it — the 
mountain side is rent asunder, and the whole globe trembles under its 
sturdy strokes. A few examples will illustrate the relative force of air 
and electricity : 

The movement of air at one mile per hour, is hardly perceptible ; at 
fifty miles per hour, it brings a terrible storm ; at one hundred miles 
per hour, it becomes a tornado — revolving, as it does, in a circle — it 
desolates man's dwelling — prostrates forests, and wrings the sturdy oak 
from her stump, and leaves a wide track through the forest, swept clean, 
and its tali oaks torn up by the roots. Electricity, when accumulated 
among the clouds and vapor, is still more forcible in its demonstrations. 

In 1772, in the Island of Java, in the District of Cheribon, reports like 
those of cannon were heard, while the top of a mountain was covered with 
dense fog, from which blazed the red flames of lightning. The cloud 
came down over the mountain, the inhabitants fled before it, while it 
was tossing and rolling, emitting globes of fire so frequently that night 
gave way and the surrounding country was lighted up with the glare of 
the noonday sun. To the inhabitants below, the scene was horrible ; 
but to those who were in the midst of it, it was indescribable. The 
houses and plantations, for twenty miles round, were demolished, torn 
up, or buried ; the whole stock of cattle, horses, and sheep, were killed, 
and over two thousand persons lost their lives. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 57 

Dr. Hibbert states that, on one of tlie Shetland Isles, (Fetlar,) about 
1750, a rock of mica slate, one hundred and five feet long, ten broad, 
in places, and four feet thick, in an instant, by a flash of lightning, was 
torn from its bed and broke into three large and several smaller frag- 
ments. The first fragment was twenty-six feet long, twenty broad, and 
four thick — this was turned over. The second piece was twenty-eight 
feet long, seventeen broad, and five feet thick — this was hurled one 
hundred and fifty feet from its bed. The third fragment, about forty 
feet long, was thrown still farther into the sea. 

The first example was caused by the movement of waves of electricity 
among watery clouds ; the second, by a stream of electricity, pom'ing from 
the earth into the air, and as this mass of rock was in its way, it disposed of 
it as above related. "Will the reader here mark this fact : The above 
phenomena, were caused by the movement of an ivijponderahk fiuid, so 
light it can not be weighed* 

Previous to 1797, Cumana, South America, was visited by an earth- 
quake ; its first motions were " horizontal oscillations. Another oc- 
curred in that year, and the earth seemed to rise up, and noises like the 
deep explosion of a mine was heard ; then iindiolalions of the earth, a 
smell of sulphur, near a hill, and subterranean noises ; Jia??ies huxst from 
the banks of the Manzanares, and in the gulf of Cariaco These oscilla- 
tions, undulations, noises, and flames, all indicate the action of a fluid. 
From 1811 to 1813, a surface — limited by the Azores, the Valley of the 
Oliio, New-Grenada and Venezuela, and the West Indies — was agitated 
by a common cause, acting deep in the bowels of the earth. During the 
7th and Sth of February, 1S12, the basin of the Mississippi was in a 
state of continual oscillation.^ 

In March, of the same year, after a terrible di-outh, Caraccas was 
disturbed by a shock so hard, " that it made the church bells rino-." 
Another shock followed : the " ground was in a continual state of %in- 
dulation, and heaved like a fluid under ebullition.'''' Soon a subterra- 
nean noise, louder than tropical thunder, was heard, and was followed 
by a perpcndicidar motion, and that by an undulatory motion. The 
shocks passed from North to South, and from East to West. The un- 
dulations, crossing each other, hurled Caraccas to the earth, burying 
thousands of its inhabitants in its ruins. 

In 1759, in the Plain of Malpais, covered with rich plantations, hol- 
low sounds were heard for two months, and one night, four square miles, 
the site of a plantation, rose suddenly up, and formed the volcano of 
JoruUo. Flames poured from an area of soil measuring six square miles. 
* See Appendix, Note E t See Appendix, Note G. 



58 A DISCUSSION. 

Streams of air also have issued from the earth, and formed volcanoes. 
Volcanic eruptions are attended v/ith all the physical symptoms of earth- 
quakes : rollings lifting and ivhirling of a fluid is apparent, and erup- 
tions occur almost always simultaneous with earthquakes, with deep- 
toned sounds in the bosom of the earth. Volcanos of smoke, with vivid 
streams of lightning, pour up into the heavens from the crater ; masses 
of rock, gleaming red with heat, are hurled high into the air ; then 
comes lava and showers of ashes. 

Sicily has been literally uprooted. In a single town in Africa, ten 
thousand inhabitants perished in a single shock. In Lisbon, Portugal, 
sixty thousand inhabitants perished ; in an hour, vast coasts were sunk 
in the sea, mountains rent open, and their proud summits precipitated 
to their base. The Sumbawa, in the Molucco Isles, in 1815, in one 
eruption, buried nearly all the people and covered the Isle with ashes. 
In 1783, the Jokul, in Iceland, covered a vast area with lava, dammed 
up rivers and drowned the inhabitants. Humboldt, near the Brigan- 
tine Mountains, saw an inky cloud rise high toward the zenith, deep 
thunder was heard, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake shook the 
earth. 

All animal naturefeeh the change in the air before a shock, and rushes 
to some retreat. These mighty convulsions — that buries cities, sinks 
islands or creates them, splits mountains, and buries nations, are caused 
by motion in an impondcrahh fluid. 

Having seen the "physical demonstrations " of a fluid on our earth, 
let us inquire into the sources of motion in matter, or the sources of 
power. We see, in the preceeding examples, three motions : a lifting, 
caused by the swelling of a fluid from a center ; nndidations^ caused by 
wave movements^ and gyrations, caused by circular motions in the fluid. 
What are the som'ces of motion in fluid .'' I answer, heat and mind. 
Internal ^re evidently evolves and puts in motion an elastic flidd., that 
gives us all the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Heat, 
from the sun, puts in motion the atmosphere, causing tempests, hurri- 
canes and tornadoes. These motions are most commonly gyrations — 
the air moves in a circle — revolves around a center Heat puts in mo- 
tion steam evolved from water ; an- moving on water creates waves ; 
heat moving among water evolves steam ; this fluid moving amid a denser 
medium — air — seeks an equilibrium with surrounding nature, and with 
such energy as to bring out a tremendous /orce. All fluids act and move 
by waves, and are capable of being accumulated more at one point than 
another — hence the negative and positive electric clouds. So heat, mov- 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 59 

i 

ing among water, creates steam, and propels the engine and steamboat. 
Heat acting on air, in open space, creates the tornado — moving forests 
before its breath ; heat acting on matter, evolves electricity ; this fluid 
seeks an equilibrium, and brings with it the earthquake's ruin. AYater 
moves at a slow pace ; poured on a wheel it turns a mill. An- in storms 
moves one hundred miles an hour ; the electric fluid moves two hundred 
thousand times faster than air. Sound is brought to the ear through 
ah" ; light is brought to the eye through another medium, and moves 
nearly two hundred thousand times faster. The lightning's flash and 
cannon's light reaches the eye long before the sound of either is heard: 
sound comes through the aii- — light through the ether ; or, to define 
closer, sound is a sensation produced in the mind by vibrations in au- ; 
light is a sensation produced in the mind by vibrations in the electric 
atmosphere. The more elastic the fluid, the more rapid and powerful 
its waves or movements. What is heat t A sensation produced in the 
mind by rapid intense movements, among particles of matter, caused 
by chemical action. What is chemical action .' Amtiicontrollahle fancy, 
or aifinity, which one particle of matter has for another — causing it to 
drop one and seize another with such force as to create what we call fii-e. 
Here we reach an vltimate, beyond which we can not go only by a 
broad leap. What is the ultimate source of all force .' We canH rea- 
son here, but we see. that it must be mind. What, then, is mind 1 Self- 
moving, thinking- matter — the source of all force-. To say mind is "z»i- 
material substance," is to say it is something made of nothing ; for im- 
material conveys to the mind the exact idea of nothing. Mind-matter 
differs from all other forms of matter, in that it moves of itself — it is a 
'■^way it has got " — while all other matter must be moved by a force ex- 
terior to itself. 

I must close, by saying that, in my next, I will examine Man, and 
see if an imponderahh fluid can be found in his possession, that mind 
can move against tables and chairs and make them dance ^^hiologically.''' 
Be patient, friends, I will try and get Bro. Brittan into hot water — 
myself, too, perhaps. Yours truly, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 



REPLY TO DE. RICHMOND. 

LETTER V. 

Dear Sir : I find your last letter to consist of introductory observa- 
tions on the philosophy of physical forces, followed by a disquisition on 
certain meteorological or aerial phenomena, earthquakes and volcanic 
eruptions, together with general remarks on the agency of imponderable 
and other fluids in the production of physical effects. That it is only 
through the more rarified forms of matter that the great forces of Nature 
are developed, is obvious to my mind, and did not require much effort 
at elucidation. The reason why active power, or force^ is only gene- 
rated in the more sublimated and less ponderable elements, is also ap- 
parent. When matter is expanded by a process of rarefaction, to a 
state of extreme tenuity, its elements admit of the most rapid mutation, 
and the molecules, or ultimate particles into which all bodies are pre- 
sumed to be resolvable, exhibit the phenomena of constantly changing 
relations and conditions. In this state the elementary atoms are kept 
in motion by the laws of chemical affinity ; and thus, under the Divine 
Mind, the great forces exhibited in matter are generated. The powers 
thus elaborated are more or less potent according to the subtilty and 
imponderability of the agents on which they proximately depend, while 
the several degrees of material sublimation modify and determine the 
momenta they communicate to various ponderable objects. 

As storms, whether attended by electrical phenomena or otherwise, 
earthqu.akes and volcanoes, sustain, to say the least, but a very remote 
relation to the alleged intercom-se of man with departed spirits, I shall 
not, of course, be expected to consume much time or space in my reply. 
It is true that a brief inquiry into the nature and origin of the forces of 
which you speak, might not be altogether inappropriate to the subject, 
but the heterogenous facts and observations, which follow in your let- 
ter, are so remotely related to the present question that I am unable to 
perceive the connection. That a large number of persons, inhabitants 
of the island of Java, lost their lives, in the manner described by you, 
is not disputed, and the reader, for aught we know to the contrary, may 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 61 

be interested to learn what proportion of \\xq Hive' stock'' — how many 
" cattle, horses, sheep," &c., were destroyed at the same time ; but 
what that catastrophe has to do with the particular subject of Spiritual 
Manifestations, it is extremely difficult to infer. I am, moreover, in- 
clined to the opirion that a piece of mica slate " one hundred and five 
feet long, ten broad, and four feet thick," might hare been forced by a 
thunderbolt, from the scene of its long repose, and scattered in hupe 
fragments over the land and into the sea. Tne fact itself is scarcely 
more extraordinary than the circumstance of its citation in this place. 
But our amazement is in no degree diminished while contemplating the 
size of the fragments, as stated in your letter. One is said to have been 
" tioenty feet broad,'''' and another " seventeen feet,''"' notwithstanding the 
whole stone teas only ^'' ten feet.'''' These details may be apociTphal, but 
those who locate such wonderful occurrences in the Shetland Isles 
should not stumble at Spiritual Manifestations in the United States. 

But as your facts do nothing to settle the question under discussion, 
I need not consider them particularly, or in the order of their narration. 
"While your philosophy may not be so entirely foreign to the chief objects 
of this correspondence, I can not resist the conviction that it is often 
erroneous in principle and generally fragmentary, or otherwise defective 
in statement. Permit me to remind you, my dear sir, that, as you have 
the affirmative of the present question, you are bound, by all the rules 
of intelligent discussion, to fortify and establish your position by such 
facts and reasons as will admit of no other application. This — pardon 
my frankness for the sake of the truth — you have neglected to do. I 
have not time to consider in detail the numerous points assumed in your 
last letter, nor is this necessary, since they have not yet been confirmed 
by any show of evidence. All that can reasonably be demanded of me, in 
a case like the present, is to deny what you assume, and patiently wait 
until you are ready to summon the witnesses on which you chiefly rely. 
Nevertheless, I will do what the acknowledged rules of polite discussion 
and scientific research do not require. For a moment I will use ' the la- 
boring oar' with a view to r/isprove what you have merely assumed. The 
positions asserted by you are so numerous, and withal so various, that I 
can, perhaps, only accomplish my present purpose by selecting one that 
appears to })& fundamental. It is briefly comprehended in the following 
literal quotation from your letter : " What are the sources of motion in 
fluid ? I ansicer, heat and Mind." 

Leaving mind out of the question, at present, let us consider whether 
heat is the source of motion in fluids. It is true that certain combinations 



62 A DISCUSSION. 

of matter, existing, if you please, in a fluid form, may be made to ex- 
hibit a chemical action. But in such cases heat is not the cause of the 
chemical action, or motion ; on the contrary, heat is evolved ly the 
rapid movement of particles during that process. Thus heat is the effect 
of motion, or of atomic friction, while the immediate cause of motion 
must be sought for in the positive and negative relations of the constit- 
uent particles of diiferent substances. 

But as you have led me to inquire into the origin of the forces, ope- 
rative in matter, and especially in fluids, I must not omit to consider the 
subject in its relation to the great fluid mass that covers the larger 
portion of our earth, and is essential to the existence of all terrestrial 
beauty and life. From this great chapter in the book of Nature we 
must read the law. Were we to take our seat in a corner, and confine 
our observations to the tea kettle or to a steamboat boiler, we might pos- 
sibly conclude that heat is the chief source of motion in fluids. But 
then it would be necessary to infer that the first link in the chain of 
causation, proceeding from visible effects, is the idtimate and ordy link, 
when it can be clearly demonstrated that sensible heat is but a mere 
effect, and that the ultimate cause, or source., of all thermal motion is 
still ulterior. If the application of heat converts water into an aeri- 
form state, in which it ascends into the upper air, it is none the less 
true that cold condenses the aqueous vapors, causing them to descend 
again to the earth. If the burning simoon has power to pile up the 
waters under the equator, and to move the very sands of the torrid zone, 
like the waves of a fiery sea, the cold storms that prevail in these higher 
latitudes have the same effect on the waters and the drifting snows. 

But the most remarkable movement of matter, in a state of fluidity, 
is found to depend on other causes than heat. I refer to the tides. 
You are doubtless aware that the attractive force of the sun and moon 
is supposed to influence and govern the tides. Indeed, in the judgment 
of scientific men, this is ascertained to be a fact. The gravitation of 
the particles of matter, toward the earth's center, is thought to be less 
on the side of the earth that is presented to the sun or moon, and where 
matter exists in a fluid form it will, by virtue of this foreign attraction 
and the diminished gravitation toward the center, rise above the ordina- 
ry level. While I am not fully settled, in my own mind, respecting 
the philosophy of the tides, the foregoing contains, in brief, the accepted 
idea of the savans. That heat has little or nothing to do with this stu- 
pendous and ceaseless motion of the great fluid mass, is evident from 
the fact that the sun's action is comparatively small, the alleged lunar 



RICHilOXD AND BRITTAN. 63 

influence, iu tlie production of the tides, transcending the solar in the 
proportion of about five to two. 

If further evidence be required, to disprove the assumption that heat 
is a chief cause of motion in fluid matter, I will undertake to prove that 
a still greater force, and more violent motion, can be produced by its 
opposite, cold. ^\'hile cold contracts almost all things, water and several 
other forms or conditions of matter, are partial exceptions to the law. 
At forty degrees Fahrenheit water attains its maximum density, and any 
increase or diminution in the temperatui'e produces an expansion. The 
greatest expansion occurs at those degrees of heat and cold, at which 
water is vaporized or solidified. It is well known that when water 
reaches the freezing point innumerable spiculse shoot through the liquid 
element, and the surface speedily assumes the solid form. T^^hen con- 
gealed it occupies more space than before. Hence, in the solid state, 
it is specifically lighter, so that ice will float on the surface of water 
instead of sinking to the bottom. Now the expansive power of water, 
in the process of congelation, greatly transcends the force of steam, so 
far as the capacity of the latter has been illustrated by mechanical ex- 
periments. To prove this I might refer to several scientific authorities, 
and instance other facts and observations, but the following brief ex- 
tract from Blake's Encyclopedia, page 375, will suffice : 

" A computation of the force of freezing water was made by the Flor- 
entine Academicians, from the bursting of a very strong brass globe or 
shell by freezing water in it, when from the known thickness and tena- 
city of the metal, it was found that the expansive power of a spherule of 
water, only one inch in diameter, was sufficient to overcome a resist- 
ance of more than twenty-seven thousand pounds, or thu-teen tons and a 
half. Such a prodigious power of expansion, almost double that of the 
most powerful steam-engines, was exerted in so small a mass, seemingly 
by the force of cold.''^ 

Thus all that we learn, or know, or can perceive, of the laws of mo- 
tion in fluids, stands opposed to your assumption. A voice, like the 
sound of many waters, is heard, and the very elements witness against 
you. That voice speaks in the silent dew-drop, that is condensed by 
the cold night an- ; it is musical as it leaps unbidden from the earth, in 
unnumbered springs and fountains ; it is syllabled in the flow of a thou- 
sand rivers, and rises in terrible majesty in the crescendos of the ocean 
storm ! 

When you intimate that Mind is a source of motion you are doubtless 
much nearer the truth. I am happy io entertain the idea that mind is 



64 A DISCUSSION. 

not only a source, of motion in ponderable matter, but that it is the. sotirr£. 
— that all motion and life, as well as sensation and thought, have their 
origin in mind. The intermediate links, in the chain that connects mind 
with the lowest elements of material nature, may be numerous and invis- 
ible, but that chain is doubtless complete, and the exhaustless life and 
thought of Deity flow down through all his creations. Next to heat you 
presume that mind may be the source of motion. If it he mind that 
thus moves among the elements, producing tempests, rending the solid 
rocks, kindling subterranean fires, and tossing continents and islands like 
fragments of a wreck on the tumultuous deep, we are forced to look 
quite beyond the sphere of Earth to find mental powers adequate to the 
production of such effects. If, therefore, the facts contained in your 
last letter, in any way illustrate the general subject, they certainly serve 
my purpose far better than they can yours, inasmuch as tbe least of all 
these stupendous revolutions, in the forms of matter, must require some 
Supra-mortal energy. 

The momentum exhibited in the movements of light, electricity and 
sound, the vibratory motion of fluids, the philosophy of heat, chemical 
action and the sensation of animal bodies, are subjects which chiefly be- 
long to the domain of physics, and when discussed by a master they 
shed but a dim and uncertain light on the realms of the soul. 

Wandering thus among '■fluids, ponderable and imponderable ;' 'over 
placid lakes ;' through ' storm and steam,' and amid the " wild war of 
waves ;" venturing where ' blaze the red flames of lightning ;' exploring 
the heated chambers of ' the volcano,' and " tossing and rolling among 
globes of fire," it is easy to perceive that the Doctor is hkely to realize 
the object of his labors by getting us both into "-hot water.'''' Hazard- 
ous as this business may be, I must not disappoint my friend who trusts 
in the fidelity of my companionship. Accordingly, I will follow on and 
abide the ordeal of all these earthly elements, content, for the present, 
to wander in ' desert places,' cheered with the prospect of the halcyon 
days when I shall be privileged to introduce my friend to scenes of 
more peaceful beauty. We may yet ascend some spiritual eminence 
together, to contemplate the ' promised land ' of the spirit, where all is 
vital and vocal with immortal life and celestial harmonies. 
Rejoicing in such a hope, I remain, Yours fraternally, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



FORCE-FLUIDS -OD-FORCE. 

DR B. W. RICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 



LETTER VI. 



Dear Sir : My third letter with, j-our reply is just reeeiTed, and I 
must make a few remarks on the answer. You still insist on their " ir- 
relevancy ;" I reply they were written before any question existed, as 
you well know. With these facts before the mind, that in insanity, 
drunkenness, somnolency, clairvoyance, and vairous intense mental 
excitements, the subject suddenly acquired new powers of singing, speak- 
ing, writing, mimicking, inventing, &c., it is possible the " Spirit-writ- 
ings " as imitations, originated in a similar way. Every fact given is 
entirely relevant to the point I was making. Had I known the entire 
history of the " wi'itings " I should have made a different point — and 
have, as it is. I mentioned pantomime as a familiar example ol that 
power to imitate in the normal state. I instanced the almost endless 
powers of the biological subject to imitate — when moved by a mental 
mpression to do so — and this, too, in a condition as apparently normal as 
that of any other state in life — can hear bells, see men, talk and act as 
in all other cases. The eye alone of the subject shows great brilliancy. 
It is constantly reiterated that mediums are in as perfectly normal state 
— they are no more so than the biological subject, and their new ac- 
quired powers are just as wonderful. It will be claimed by and by that, 
magnetic persons because they appear perfectly normal ;* while the most 
marvelous class of magnetic and mental phenomena, ever seen, are- 
among persons who appear -perfectlj' no7-mal. Again, a somnambule 
took words and sounds and shakes from the mind of Miss Lind, this, 
proves the two minds to be en rapport. Let us give form to your ex- 
ample of" H." 

1. "H.," while " deeply entranced "in your presence, repeated words 
and thoughts, and imitated actions, so vivid on your " memory " that 
thirty years had not dimmed their recollection. 

2. This proves, that " H." was e?i rapport with your mind — and was^ 

a somnambule. 

* See Appendix, Note H. 

5 



66 A DISCUSSION. 

3 As none but the mind of tlie somnambule is capable of being e?i 
rapport with other minds. 

Y^ou ask what enti-anccd " H.?" I reply by asking what causes you 
to think, to sleep, to dream } It was spontaneous, and he went instant- 
ly into rapport with your mind ; those " iindmmed impressions " were 
the first he found. Hannah B.'s name was there, and the " undimmed " 
thought in your memory was force enough to place before his spirits 
eye, the shadowy form of the poor maniac. Mr. Courtney tells you, 
that spirits can not discriminate between the real and imaginative — this 
law is universal among magnetic persons. The biologist transforms a 
stick into a spirit — he says spirit — and the subject has a spirit before 
him — to him as real as the other ; both are ideal^ unreal. The shadow of 
the maniac was real to the mind of " H.," but it was a reflection of her 
image from your mind. What placed before tfie mind of Henry Clay, 
the spirits of his living friends ? These spirits were the reflections from 
his own mind, and so were the spirits of his dead friends that he saw 
around him. 

Dr. Kerner, I am aware, attempted to prove that the Seeress of Pre- 
vorst could distinguish between the real and imaginary spirits that were 
about her. She saw her own spirit sitting near ; but the history of ghost- 
seeing, which we shall reach in due time, will settle some points in this 
difiicult question. You assume that B.'s spirit was present, and then use 
what follows as evidence of the very thing you should have proved. In 
dealing with the subtilties of mind, great caution is needed to avoid false 
conclusions. I have often seen mediums stop at a letter — a word— a sen- 
tence — and return after a lapse of hom-s, or days, to the same letter — word, 
'or sentence. The case related by Dr. Prichard, and the same phenomena 
in the inebriate, were in point, showing a similar mood of mind. But I 
iinust pass to another question, and in doing so, I will advert to your 
remark, " that my facts are wholly irrelevant, and their introduction in 
this connection is not iha happiest illustration of that maturity of thought 
which the prof ound nature of the subject demands." By reference to 
the question it will be seen that, the " abruptness of my conclusions," 
and the " maturity of my thoughts " are not the points under review ; 
and without hinting that such personal allusions may indicate inordinate 
-self-esteem, I would request the readers of the Telegraph to pay very 
little attention to friend Brittan's opinions on these points, I will bring 
• such " thought " as I have, and each may judge for himself. Neither of 
us can change the laws of the Universe, and we shall both find much 
sto be learned after the discussion closes. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 67 

To prepare the mind of the reader for a clear understanding of the 
motion among chairs and tables, and to show how the human mind may- 
prepare them to become " star actors," I have called attention to fluid, 
and traced out in as short a manner as possible the manner and cause of 
their action. That an invisible imponderable fluid was at work in these 
movements I doubt not. If the medium has any connection whatever 
with these occurrences, there is some medium through which his or her 
mind must act ; and so of the " spirits " — if there be any — they must 
act through some media. If they enter the body, or stand outside of the 
medium, how do they reach the table and chairs } — by hands, or how .'' 

All mesmerizers have contended that a fluid "nerve aura," or elec- 
tric vitality was put m motion in mesmerizing. My own observation 
has long convinced me that an imponderable fl'uid was at work in the 
various forms of nervous afiections that afflict our race, and these con- 
victions enabled me more readily te grasp the agent used by the mind 
in these occurrences. I venture here a remark, that so long as soitnds 
are involved in these phenomena, it is useless to deny the work of a 
fluid. Sound can only be produced through fluid. So far as the nor- 
mal ear is capable of hearing sound, it gathers it, wholly and totally, 
either by the movement of the particles of the same fluid against one 
another, or the movement of one fluid through another. Sound, then, 
is a sensation., produced in the mind, by a concussion of the particles of 
air or ether against each other. I might here rest this point ; for either 
hypothesis involves this necessity. " Spirits " can not produce sound 
without it — nor move matter — nor can imbodied spu-it, produce sound 
or move matter without it. The law of accoustics is as fixed as gravi- 
tation, and involves a fluid throughout the realms of animated being — 
wide as the race and as unevadable as the decree of Omnipotence 
Here we wish to ask distinctly : Are all, or any part, of the human 
family surrounded by an ether-fluid or aura, peculiar to themselves — 
distinct from the atmospheric ocean in which we live } Biology and its 
phenomena long since satisfied me that mind could be added to mind so 
as to be one^an impulse in the one was an impulse in the other ; and 
that strange power which enables us to destroy sensation in a limb, 
must control the medium through which sensation passes from the mind 
to the muscle. "We see that some agent must act between the mind and 
the muscle, and must,of course be able to seize it wherever it is found. 
In experimenting on impressible subjects, Prof. Buchanan was able to 
demonstrate the existence of a fluid., '■'■nerve aura.,'''' through which he 
worked his wonders. 



68 .A DISCUSSION 

Eeichenbacli's Dynamics discloses more fully the existence of this 
power, which he calls Od-force. He had noticed that certain persons 
in the impressionable state acquired new powers. Seeing, feeling, hearing, 
touching, he found to be vastly exalted. It occurred to him that these 
persons might discern, by this exalted state of sight, the cause of one 
magnet attracting another, and the cause perhaps of all attraction from 
globes to atoms. He observed certain persons to be strangely affected 
by magnets, crystals, &c. On presenting a magnet to one of these sub- 
jects, she saw a bright flame from the poles. He again and agaiii re- 
peated these experiments, ranging from magnets through the whole 
kingdom of Nature. But here rose a difficulty ; these flames might be 
"reflections from the medium's mind." As this flame seemed analo- 
gous to light, would it affect the iodine on the camera. A horse-shoe 
magnet was placed in the camera, and all light excluded., and in sixty- 
four hours perfect evidence of the action of od-light on the plate was ob- 
tained. He still persevered, and traced it out in every substance in 
Nature ; and then began with men and women, and clearly established 
its existence in and around the human system, proved its identity with 
that of magnetism or the Od-force of magnets -and crystals. By num- 
berless experiments he established its transmissilility from man to every 
substance in Nature. He traced it throughout the Universe, in earth, 
air, light, heat, and electricity. It is dual in all substances, and follows 
the law of heat and cold, or positive and negative. The existence of 
this " Od-force," was found constant, in persons of highly nervous tem- 
peraments — in the hysterical— those subject to fits — the impressible of 
all classes. Those, too, were found, who exhibited perfect health, yet 
they showed these phenomena. The sick-sensitive did not always show 
it so clearly, as those who departed less from the apparently normal state. 
I can not go into details on this point, but will refer all scientific readers 
to the work of Baron Reichenbach. The point I wish to impress on 
the mind, is this : that a certain class of persons, are certainly known 
to be surrounded by a a subtile fluid, and their bodies are pervaded 
with it ; the subtile chemistry of the human system generates it, both 
in digestion and other vital changes. This fluid is transmissible to 
metals, crystals, glass, wood, or any substance wearing the form of mat- 
ter. And we here suggest that, if this fluid is subject to the hitman v-ill, 
when it is transmitted to these substances, we have found probably a 
solution to " spirit-force." 

The fact that bodies attracted each other was observed long before 
the days of Newton ; he only announced it as a late of all matter. When 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 69 

asked what caused these bodies to act on each other, in proportion to 
their quantity, the philosopher was deeply puzzled, and the deep and 
clear insight into Nature's laws only enabled him to conjecture, that it 
was a subtile imponderable fluid — each seeking an equilibrium with the 
other — and being entangled in the mass of denser matter, its move- 
ments carry with it the bodies it pervades. Euler, in some respects 
more penetrating than Newton, confirms his suppositions and concludes 
that Deity had zcilled this fluid into solids at the moment of creation. 
When Newton contemplated the mystery of muscular motion, he con- 
jectured that a fluid, imponderable in its nature, was under the control 
of the huinan will^ by which it moved our bodies from place to place. 

Mesmer, who began to observe,- with a clear sight, the eff'ects of mag- 
nets on persons, producing in them a strange state, by accident found 
that the same results could be induced without magnets — by moving the 
hand ovC/i' them. Just enough has been preserved of Mesmer's original 
movements, in producing magnetic sleep and curing the sick, to show 
that he regarded the cause of it as intimately connected with the great 
laws of the Universe. His rooms hung with mirrors ; his magnetic tub ; 
slow music falling on the ear ; pleasant sights and sounds ; shady walks 
and blooming flowers, clearly demonstrate that, in his mind, light, re- 
flection, magnetism, sounds and odors, all aided the production of this 
mysterious sleep. The history of his discovery has been a strange one ; 
but Reichenbach's Dynamics comes in to confirm and siibstantiate all 
Newton's conjectures, as to the cause of attractio7i and muscular motion^ 
and most singularly confirms and demonstrates the force by which Mes- 
mer worked his singular influences on the living organism. If all bodies, 
from the earth down to the horse shoe magnet, and the small crystal, are 
surrounded and penetrated by a magnetic fluid, then we see the cause 
of the mutual attraction between bodies as clear as sunlight.* Just so 
in living bodies, there must be some force by which they move and pro- 
duce movement. The hand seizes an iron ball and puts it in motion — 
we say the will put the hand in motion — but between the will and hand 
there must be a medium — an agent by which the will grasps the muscle. 
That agent must be an imponderable fluid — subtile and easily moved — 
capable of being set in motion on the nerves and muscles, producing mo- 
tion and sensation. Electricity is the only agent in Nature, known to 
man, that will produce muscular motion when brought in contact with a 
body from which life is extinct. It is beginning to be admitted by lib- 
eral men in the medical profession that a close identity exists between 
the cause of muscular action and magnetic forces, that it is identical 
* See Appendix, Note I. 



70 A DISCUSSIOK. 

with electricity and its modifications. Eeiclienbacli's discoveries settle 
this question, and the world may deny it, and scout it, and abuse the 
author as it has done, yet it is a firm step in the path of physical science, 
and destined to lead to more important results in unraveling the laws 
of mind and matter, than all others that have preceded it. 

The Od-force of Reichebach comes at once to our aid in the " mod- 
ern mysteries." It is an imponderable fluid pervading all bodies^ it 
charges the human system, is abundantly produced in the process of di- 
gestion, and the subtile chemism of the human system, it is transmitted 
to all bodies by siinjple contact. The human body having it in abundance 
transmits it to inanimate matter — the human will having control over it 
— as easily grasps and impels it, when chairs and tables have been 
charged with it, as when a muscle or a nerve has been charged with it. 
It is no more strange that it can be transmitted from dead to living, or 
from living to dead bodies, than it is that one cup of water can be poured 
into another ; or that one candle can be lighted by another, or steels be 
heated when plunged into fii'e, or a sponge filled with water, when 
placed in contact with it. This outline will sufiice to show the readers 
of your paper, the track in which I will try and guide them in future 
numbers. Yours truly, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 

LETTER VI. 

Dear Sir : Having at length attended to ^q foreign relations of Spir- 
itualism, I am pleased to perceive a disposition to regard matters nearer 
home. While I have no wish to dictate as to the course to he pursued, 
in this part of the discussion, I yet feel that the more internal and vital 
elements and interests of the suhject have been too long neglected, and 
the present indications are, therefore, the more highly appreciated. 
Thus far we have been gazing from a distance — in various directions — 
through clouds and storms, striving to catch a momentary glimpse of the 
Spiritual Zion ; but, from the present course of things, I am encouraged 
to hope that we may yet establish intimate relations with'the question, 
and, perhaps, gain the outer courts of the great Spiritual Temple. 

In the opening paragraph of the communication now before me, you 
repeat with emjphasis what you had before stated, namely, that your 
first three letters " were written before any question existed." Nothing 
further need be said to satisfy you and our readers that, in this case, 
your memory is at fault. The facts and circumstances, as detailed in 
my fourth letter, are deemed conclusive. If any one should entertain a 
different opinion, I beg leave to refer him, particularly, to your own 
words — recorded in the same connection — from which it will appear that 
the real parties to the controversy on this point, are Dr. Richmond, in 
his jpibblic correspondence, versus, Dr. Richmond in his private epistles. 

A willingness, on my part, to renew the discussion concerning the ori- 
gin of the ' Spirit-writings,' might be construed into a tacit acknowledg- 
ment that the evidence already adduced is insufficient, as the basis of a 
rational conviction. I see no occasion for such a concession, and will 
not question the validity of the testimony, even by implication. Yow 
introduced the ' writings ' to illustrate your position, referring them to 
a supposed 'abnormal,' and perhaps ' unconscious,' exercise of certain fac- 
ulties. In my reply I offered a simple statement of the facts, and the 
concurrent testimony of a number of the most respectable persons, with 
several collateral proofs and incidental circumstances, all strongly cor- 
roberative of their claims to a spiritual origin. The question, it will be; 



72 A DISCUSSION. 

perceived, is one of fact, and against your naked assumption I oppose the 
testimony of persons whose characters for intelligence and veracity no 
candid man will venture to impeacli. The reader will judge which is 
most reliable, and I will consent to renew the discussion, concerning the 
origin of the vrritings, only, when you succeed in your labors to invali- 
date the evidence on which their authenticity now rests. Until then, I 
most respectfully decline any further reference to the subject. 

The attempt to identify the injluences denominated spiritual, with the 
effects 0? ardent spirits and mental derangement, are not merely in bad 
taste — they can not fail to prejudice your case. Materialism, in its rash 
efforts to dispose of a difficult subject, has hitherto resorted to no hy- 
pothesis more repugnant to reason and enlightened observation. If in- 
sanity and drunkenness, etc., really produce the phenomena to which in- 
telligent Spu-itualists refer, as illustrations of the intercourse of man 
with the invisible wortd, let this be shown : take the facts, whereon we 
rest our convictions, and exhibit their alleged relations to these causes. 
This you are bound to do or at once relinquish yom* position, so far as 
it rests on the implied allegation that, inebriety and lunacy are conspic- 
uous among the sources of the Spiritual Manifestations. To even intimate 
that the ravings of a madman, or the incoherent mutterings of a drunk- 
ard are, in any case, suitable illustrations of the subject before us, is to 
deride the deepest and holiest sympathies of the human heart ; to trifle 
with the most endearing associations and sacred realities, and to pour 
contempt on the religious faith of thousands. 

You affirm that all media are in an abnormal state, but this is not 
true. Many of them exhibit no signs of any such condition. They 
write letters and converse on subjects altogether foreign to the maifesta- 
tions, and appear, while the sounds are occurring, as they do on all other 
occasions. Augusta Middlebrook, of Bridgeport, Ct., a rapping medium 
— ^through whom I once had some seven hundred test questions correctly 
answered in the space of one week — never, in my presence, exhibited 
the slightest indication of magnetic susceptibility, or of any abnormal 
condition of the faculties. These remarks are substantially true in their 
application to many others. But you essay to evade the force of these 
facts by assuming that ' the most marvelous class of magnetic phenom- 
ena are developed in persons who a-p-pear perfedh/ normal.'' This, also, 
I deny. When persons are — so far as we can judge from all outward 
signs and phenomenal appearances — in a perfectly normal condition, I 
would respectfully inquire, by what unknown laws of evidence or rules 
■ of logic do you decide that they are in an opposite state? If, in such 



RICHMOND AND liRITTAN. 73 

cases, you totally disregard all the evidence, whereby, alone, the condi- 
tions of the human body and mind may be determined, do you not at- 
tempt to sustain your hypotjjiesis at the expense of your reason, and in 
opposition to the facts ? And is not this a conspicuous example of some 
more vital defect than any that is implied in the mere abruptness of your 
conclusions. Trance, is certainly one of the ' most marvelous of the 
magnetic states. In this condition the spirit leaves the body, tempora- 
rily, and of necessity the physical functions are arrested. The eye is 
motionless, the muscles are relaxed, respiration suspended and the heart is 
still. Now so far from the subjects of this mysterious state being, in 
appearance, in a perfectly normal condition, they appear, in numerous 
instances, to be ^trfedly dead ! So far, my dear su', your observations 
and the facts are at variance. 

You assume that H., the medium referred to in my third letter, was 
' spontaneously entranced,' and that he was en rapport with my own 
mind while personating a maniac in a scene that occurred thirty years 
ago. That your conclusions, in this instance also, are neither the result 
of evidence nor of mature deliberation, is clear to my mind, and I 
doubt not, the following considerations will render the justice of this re- 
mark equally manifest to the reader. All effects, of whatever name or 
class, suggest to the rational mind the existence of certain causes^ with- 
out which the effects themselves could not occur. When H. was en- 
tranced, there must have been some cause or agent of sufficient power to 
produce that result. Moreover, that cause must have been operative 
at the particular moment when the state was induced. "When you affirm 
that the trance was " spontaneous,''^ you appear to want to relieve your- 
self of the labor of looking after an adequate cause. Pardon me if I in- 
sist on searching for the unknown magnetizer. That there was some 
agent, visible or invisible, to produce this mysterious state must be ob- 
vious to every well informed mind. It is well known that sleep, as it 
occurs in the order of nature, is gradual in its approach, and there can 
be no doubt that the exhaustion of the vital forces, by exercise dm-ing 
the day, produces the state. But when a profound trance supervenes, as 
in the case of H., it obviously depends on different causes. AUow me 
here to remind you, that H. was not in a circle — no circle existed in the 
house at the time. He did not on the occasion referred to — nor does 
he ever under similar circumstances — yield gradually to a state of som- 
nolence. He was entranced unexpectedly and in an instant. Did he en- 
trance himself in the midst of an animated conversation .'' No. This 
he has not the power to do under favorable circumstances. What are 



74 A DISCUSSION. 

the probabilities that he was influenced by me ? I answer, there are no 
such probabilities. If you doubt, here is my proof : I had, on a pre- 
vious occasion, and in presence of witnesses, spent some forty minutes 
in an energetic effort to magnetize H., but without OMy perceptible effect. 
Did an " imponderahle fiuid " ' put him into the state V If so, please 
explain the modus operandi, and tell us how unorganized matter can ex- 
ert a voluntary power greater than that of the human mind .'' If the 
trance was not self-induced ; if the mind of the writer had nothing to do 
with it ; and, finally, if no 'imponderable fluid' is adequate to the produc- 
tion of such a state, it remains for you, either to admit that it was the 
result of spiritual agency, or to account for it in some other way. 

Leaving you to account for the fact of the trance — if that be possible 
— without admitting the presence and influence of a spirit, I will proceed 
to consider another point. You presume that, on being entranced, " H. 
went instantly into rapport" with ?«e, because he represented a scene of 
which I had a distinct recollection. But here your conclusion is unau- 
thorized, as I will endeavor to show. By reference to my third letter, 
in which the case is narrated, you will discover that neither the particu- 
lar circumstances there mentioned, nor the per son , had been a subject of 
thought for a long time, nor until the name was most unexpectedly an- 
nounced and the representation commenced. It is true that the inci- 
dents of that melancholy experience made so deep an impression on my 
mind, that I can still recall the scene with all its deep shades and fear- 
ful coloring ; yet weeks and months often pass with nothing to awaken 
the recollection. In the instance under discussion, it was revived by a 
stranger who knew nothing of my personal or family history, and in the 
peculiar manner already described. Now the decision of the contro- 
versy, as far as it relates to this particular fact, turns on this question : 
Do somnambules, impressible, magnetic or psychological subjects, re- 
flect the thought that is latent in the mind, and the memories that slum- 
her in the soul, or does the awakened thought alone cast its shadow or 
daguerreotype its image on the receptive mind } I know not that my 
opportunities for observation have been more extensive than yours, but 
for many years I have pursued the subject carefully and calmly, but 
with an intense and ever-increasing interest. I confined myself to a 
com-se of private investigation for many months, before venturing to 
make any public communication. My experiments — on a great number 
of persons of all ages and temperaments — ^numbering thousands, have 
all contributed to establish this one fact, namely, that the persons who 
are susceptible — agreeably to electrical and psychological laws — to im 



RICHMOND AND BEITTAN. VO 

pressions from the minds of others, invariably reflect the 7noving ihovg/it, 
the existing emotion, or predominant affection of the human mind. 
Indeed, it is quite impossible that it should be otherwise, consistently 
with your h3^pothesis. You suppose that these impressions are made 
through the excitement or disturbance of an imponderable fluid, and that 
they are transmitted, through the medium of the sensor nerves, to the sen- 
sorium of the subject. If this be the case, it must inevitably follow that 
the active ivifulse^ rather than the latent affection^ the living thought^ and 
not the bitried fecollcctioii, will be represented, since the former alone 
have power to disturb the vital aura or other imponderable elements of 
the human body. Thus it is not what the poet or the orator felt in 
his childhood, or even but yesterday, that moves men's souls to-day. It 
is the impassioned utterance of the present hour that ignites the latent 
elements of thought, quickens the heart's action, and moves with a mys- 
terious spiritual energy over all the springs of being. So it is not what 
we thought^ or willed thirty years since, but the volition of the passing 
hour — of this moment — that must of necessity influence the somnambule 
and determine the nature of his impression. Now as I was think- 
ing of other persons and objects, and not of Hannah S., when the name 
was unexpectedly announced, we are forced to refer this fact to a spirit- 
ual source. If I believe on insufficient evidence, yon certainly believe 
without any. You conjecture that the medium was en rafport with me, 
in opposition to his own express declaration and regardless of a variety 
of circumstances, all of which point most significantly to a difi"erent con- 
clusion. My own conviction — authorized by the mysterious intelligence 
itself — is confirmed by all our observations in this department. It will 
abide the severest ordeal of enlightened reason and a sound inductive 
philosophy, and is sanctioned by the plainest psychological laws and the 
revelations of a spiritual religion. 

You appear to have taken slight exceptions to a single observation in one 
of my former letters. When I incidentally remarked that the introduction 
of certain miscellaneous physical and mental phenomena, did not afibrd the 
most felicitous illustration of the maturity of thought demanded by the 
nature of the subject, I designed to restrict my language to the particular 
subject comprehended in Hlie question.'' Your facts seemed to repudiate 
any specific application to the real issue, and the intimation that you 
were not making the subject proposed — Spiritual Manifestations — a mat- 
ter of mature thought, was, perhaps, the most civil manner of suggest- 
ing that the main question was lost sight of altogether. 

You query concerning the peculiar mode whereby spirits produce the 



76 A DISCUSSION. 

effects ascribed to them. " If ttey enter the body or stand outside the 
medium, how do they reach the table, chairs, &c." Permit me to re- 
mind you that I have not the affirmative of the present question, and 
hence may be excused for leaving your question unanswered, until the 
appropriate occasion for its elucidation shall arrive. For the present, my 
friend has undertaken to show how the more remarkable phenomena can 
be produced without spiriis. Just now, therefore, we are anxiously 
awaiting any disclosm*es you may be pleased to make on this subject. 
We, in turn, shall present our facts and reasons when we are privileged 
to lead. 

What follows in your letter is highly interesting and to the purpose, 
but it contains nothing that I am inclined to controvert. I of course 
yield a willing credence to Newton ''s discoveries. The interesting facts 
and observations of Dr. Buchanan, in his Journal of Man, I also ac- 
cept as important contributions to science. The experiments of Mes- 
mer and Baron Von Reichenbach are of great value. I receive all 
their facts, with the utmost cordiality, though I frequently dissent from 
their conclusions. In all this you occupy neutral ground, and your ob- 
servations — with slight exceptions which I need not particularize — sub- 
serve my purpose well. It now remains for you to prove that the human 
mind, in the body, or some earthly agent, can, and does, control these im- 
ponderable fluids, in the production of all the astounding phenomena 
which we ascribe to the agency of Spirits. 

Resolved to follow wherever Truth may lead the way, I await the re- 
ceipt of yom' next letter, and am, Fraternally thine, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



OD-FORCE— WILL-FORCE. 

DR B. W. RICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

LETTER VII. 

Dear Sir : JSTumber four and five of my letters and your replies are 
before me. I perceive clearly enough that I should write to a. question^ 
whether one existed or not, by mere foresight of " reputed sagacity ;" 
and, that being settled, I promise reformation in that particular, as soon 
as convenient . 

But a single point is made in my criticism on the autographs — and 
that is, that it has internal evidence of being the work of one hancl^ instead 
of being the work of fifty-six diiFerent individuals, without insisting that 
it was an " unconscious feat of somnambulism," the work of forgery, or 
of spirits. My remarks touching the medium, places him where the 
facts given to the public place him. It is of the facts given to the pub- 
lic of which you may complain — unless you show that I have misrepre- 
sented them. Appeals to the sympathy of friends in favor of a medi- 
um, on the plea that his " integrity " has been attacked, are useless ; 
when such momentous questions are sought to be settled by the testi- 
mony of a single individual, I think men will pause before they settle so 
intricate a matter by one man's testimony. I ■ regret much that you 
did not feel bound to give the whole of Mr. Bush's letter in the Tel- 
egraph, as you published it in the Shekinah. In the course of 
the Discussion I shall again reach this su.bject ; for the present I must 
drop it. 

Your reply to my fifth letter, is singular indeed. That you may 
easily understand almost any proposition, without " elucidation," may 
be true, but you will pardon me for suggesting that I am not writing- 
out my train of reasoning for your particular benefit ; many who read 
the Telegraph may need just such facts and elucidations as I am giv- 
ing, to enable their minds to grasp the subject. Your fir"st paragraph 
only affirms my definition of chemical action. 

Dr. Hibbert, I suppose, only gives the average breadth and thickness 
of the rock torn up by an i?nponderabIe fluid, while portions of the rock 
probably was wider than " teji feet,^'' as his account seems to indicate. 



78 A DISCUSSION. 

Such criticisms indicate an ability to crawl into a hole less than "ten 
feet " in diameter. When I begin to talk about tables being charged 
with a. fluid and moved by the human will, it will be held up as the 
most marvelous thing on record — but to my perception, it is far less 
wonderful than the destruction of such a rock, by the movements of a 
fluid, in open space, unguided by will — or heat — or aught else that we 
can see — but its tendency to seek an equilibrium, like two waves in 
water. "Tea kettles," "steam boilers," and splitting rocks, seem 
small matters for your capacity. Newton cut the ridiculous figure of 
studying a " falling apple," and can only be excused on the plea of in- 
competence. You and I, my dear sir, ought to be above such little things 
as Newton dabbled in, having a flood of light from 07i high. 

Your disquisition on " cold," as a'greater /orcc-agent than heat, seems 
out of place. My definition of heat makes it an effect ; why then your 
argument to show it an efi'ect .? Probably because I mentioned it as a 
cause of motion in fluids In air, water, and steam, it acts as a catise — 
itself being produced by chemical action — and is an eflect when men- 
tioned in that connection. If your Florentine academicians present co/(i 
in their experiments, as a condition of matter destitute of heat, they 
misled themselves. Cold is a relative term used to indicate a condition 
of matter indicating less heat than a certain other condition. If in your 
ice illustration you intend to teach that cold is the absolute negation or 
absence of all heat, then you and I have studied the science of heat and 
cold difierently. 

Heat is abstracted from water till it reaches a certain point — it con- 
geals and rarifies — but heat remains in the ice still. In freezing-water 
spictda not only shoot out through the liquid, but, what is more marvel- 
ous, they shoot out aroiind a common center, (the law of all congelation,) 
uniting in a thousand fantastic ways at their various circumferences. I 
have watched the process by candle-light — an undignified business, no 
doubt, in the opinion of savans, and my own tastes, indeed, would have 
preferred a tilt astride of an iceberg galloped by lightning down the de- 
clivities of the North pole. 

The attraction of the moon on the ocean, in no wise contradicts my 
statements. Air and water may be moved by heat, the moon may at- 
tract the ocean, and yet each and all of these phenomena are variations 
of the law of gravitation in its difierent modes of manifestation, and still 
we must have some medium through which to transmit our thought, and 
are obliged to use terms which men may misunderstand, if they choose 
to do so, and ride on coW moonbeams into the regions of shadows. 



I 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 79 

Thanking the friends for their patience, I will again call attention to 
Od-force and Will-force. Baron Von Keichenbach clearly demonstrtes 
that, the od-force filled and surrounded the bodies of all magnetic per- 
sons — also those who were sickly — subject to fits — hysterics — trance- 
somnambulism, &c He clearly established another fact, that it was 
transmissible to all substances in nature, without exception, by simple 
contact with the person — and that, in muscular motion and mesmeric 
attraction, the mind, or will, controls this subtile fluid. AU mediums, 
without exception are the same class of temperament and persons 
on which the Baron made his experiments. "When I come to physical 
sympioms and temperaments of mediums, I will settle this point. 

Dr. Dodd, of Boston, has logically demonstrated that, m vmscular 
motion., the mind acts through, or upon, an imponderable fluid, putting 
it in rapid motion, causing the muscular molecules to assume different 
relations, and presenting to the eye the phenomena of muscular contrac- 
tion and expansion. Dr. Smee, of London, has, by experiment, settled 
quite satisfactorily the fact that the mechanism of muscular action is 
voltaic — that during muscular contraction a voltaic current is passing. 
Electric sparks have been obtained from the nerves, of persons subject 
to consumption and, I believe, those subject to fits. Dr. Buchanan 
says he has proven that, in mesmeric phenomena, an imponderable fluid, 
" nerve aura," plays an indispensable pare, and that his experiments on 
impressible persons show the existence of such a fluid. He can not 
identify it with electricity, or magnetism. Yon Keichenbach has 
proven its identity with magnetism. 

The torpedo is an example of animal life by wiU electrically con- 
trolled. Its power to give a shock, and to benumb the living fiber, is 
known to all. The gymnotis, or electric-eel, is a still more striking ex- 
ample of electric life. Humboldt, in his travels in South America, 
witnessed a fight between these eels and horses driven by the Indians 
into the pools of water where they lived. The fish rose to the surface, 
presented his back to the belly of the horse, and his shock stunned the 
poor animal, so much that, in many cases, they fell into the water and 
were drowned. They give a distinct shock to the hand and arm, when 
touched by a stick, transmitting the electric current along a common 
staff or reed. 

Their nervous systems are electric, two-thirds of the fibers of the 
brain being connected, distinctly, with the electrical apparatus. The 
wzY/, in these cases, controls electric airrents, produces muscular motion, 



80 A DISCUSSION. 

and the phenomena of " physical demonstrations," almost equal to the 
" rappers " 

Is the human brain a magnetic lattery ? Experiments in hiology had 
clearly shown me this, long before I had heard of Smee, Von Reichen- 
bach, or Gregory. 

Take the operator and wires, in the telegraph, and substiute the will 
of the biologist and the nerves of his subject for them. Suppose the 
brain a battery, and the blood a solution of vitriol, and you have a ma- 
chine presenting all the wonders of the telegraph. You may, by wiU- 
force, break and connect those human wires at any point, controUiag as 
you do by mind the currents that are apparently passing over them, 
carrying motion to the arm, sight to the eye, taste to the tongue and 
sound to the ear. My convictions will not satisfy others. A. J. Davis, 
in his volume called the Physician, announces the fact that the brain is 
a battery, and the phenomena of life magnetic. The savans laughed 
at it, of course, but they will be obliged to eat the fact in spite of their 
wry faces. Smee announced the same fact, founded on long and care- 
fully conducted experiments. The savans mocked him, and said " make 
a man and' put life in him, and we will believe you." The stupid fools ! 
Von Reichenbach demonstrates that the phenomena of life is magnetic, 
and the result of animal chemism — the savans think him crazy or a fool. 
All their reviews of him were the concentrated essence of bigotted stu- 
pidity. Leibeg shows the same fact by another route, but still nobody 
can see it. 

To the above we add what Grregory says : 

Man A Great Galvanic Battery. — The remarkable fact already noticed, 
of the existence in all parts of the body of an alkaline liquid, the blood, and an 
acid liquid, the juice of the flesh seperated by a very thin membrane and in con- 
tact with muscle and nerve, seems to have some relation to the fact now estab- 
lished of the existence of electric currents in the body, and particularly to those 
which occur when the muscles contract. The animalbody may be regarded as a 
galvanic engine for the production of mechanical force, ^his force is derived 
from the food, and with food has been derived, as we have seen, from the solar 
rays. A working man, it has been calculated, produces in twenty-four hours an 
amount of heating or thermal effect equal to raising nearly fourteen millions of 
pounds to the hight of one foot, heat being one form of mechanical effect. But, 
from causes connected with the range of temperature, he can only produce, in the 
form of actual work done, about as much mechanical effect as would raise three 
million five hundred thousand pounds the hight of one foot, and that in twenty- 
four hours. Even this is a prodigious amount of force, and whether we regard 
it as derived from heat, electricity, or chemical action, it is ultimately derived 
from the luminous solar rays, on which vegetation depends. 

[Gregory's Chemistrj-. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 81 

The phenomena of all animal life is magnetic ; the human brain and 
nerves are designed for electric action. The white and gray substance 
of the brain, take the place of zinc and copper ; the ultimate molecules 
of the gray substance, are globular : the white fibres, found in contact 
with it, ma}^ be, traced through their whole extent, as perfectly as the 
wire to its different stations. Add to all this, the fact, that electricity 
and its modifications of all substances in nature, when put in motion on 
the human nerves, is alone capable of producing muscular contraction^ 
exactly resembling the action of the muscle, under the will-power. I 
will caution the reader here, not to confound will, or mind with od-force, 
magnetic currents, or vital heat, produced by chemical action, in the 
human organism ; the latter, is only the agent — the imponderable fluid, 
which the mind seizes and controls, in producing the voluntary phenom- 
ena of life ; while the unconscious, interior involuntary will, controls 
these vital currents in their action on the heart, lungs and invokmtary 
phenomena of animal life. When we are shut cut by sleep from the 
voluntary world, with what wonderful regularity is life maintained ; the 
lungs inhale, the heart contracts and expands ; the blood is arterialized ; 
the body is nourished ; the brain transmits thought ; and the body as 
unconsciously obeys its impulse, as do the heart or lungs. 

Now, what has all this to do with " Spirit-rappiogs .?" " Much every 
way." I have reached about this result, in the chat we are having : 

Man, is a magnetic machine, to produce force, under the control of 
will or mind. He is found to be surrounded, and permeated, with the 
od-force — electricity — vital-heat — nerve aura — an imponderable fluid ; 
mind comes in contact with this force, or fluid ; applies it to muscle ; applies 
living muscle to the chair ; upsets it ; raps on the table ; turns it over — with 
various other physical demonstrations * We find this od-force in. the horse- 
shoe magnet ; one magnet operates on another and moves it, repels and at- 
tracts it. Baron VonReichenbach presented these magnets to sickly, fitty,. 
magnetic-impressible persons ; it attracted, repelled, and produced in 
them convulsions, fits, magnetic sleep, cramps, spasms. In one case 
we see two dead masses of matter moving each other ; that is wonderful, 
marvelous, curious, monstrous. Again, dead matter, or the magnet,, 
moves, controls, cramps, puts to sleep a living being — a person of par- 
ticular make, and condition ; and now comes the rub : Can dead matter, 
under the control of mind, be made to jump, turn over, dance, play the 
pantomime, quiver, become a " star actor," and make a fool of itself, 
and those who are trying to look into its mysterious behavior } 

The od-force, vital fluids magnetic fluid, nerve aura, are controlled. 
* See Appendix, Note J. 
6 



82 A DISCUSSION. 

by mind, in the body or out ; this fact Von Reichenbach, and mesmeric 
experiments, settles forever. This/o7-ce, or fluid, is transmissible to all 
known substances, by simple contact. Don't kick, and say, it is not ; 
first study the Baron's Dynamics, he settles that point, too. It accords 
with other facts in Nature, of a relative kind. Water enters the sponge ; 
air penetrates where water can not ; heat enters the solid steel, by simple 
contact ; water penetrates the pores of wood ; one flame kindles another ; 
the living body imbibes the small-pox virus, from a dead body ; it puts 
in motion a new action in the man ; he dies of cholera — malaria does 
the same. AU nature is full of examples of the kind. One person 
pours his own vital fluid upon another ; he seizes his will, his body, and 
controls it as his own ; he eats, walks, thinks, acts, as the will of his 
master directs ; yet they are ten feet, or twenty, apart. Major "Weir, 
hung for witchcraft, was very gifted in prayer by the sick bed ; but 
could not pray when they took away his staff". It had become a con- 
ductor^ and when gone from his hand, his brain was oppressed by the 
od-force, or nerve-aura, which the cane carried off"; about as strange as 
the conduct of the gymnotis, that gives a shock to the hand, through the 
length of a staff", by the force of his will. Weir was hung for the one, 
and the eel skinned for the other. In my next, I will bring my facts to 
bear on this theory, and do remember, that it will soon be my turn to 
" follow behind," crack the whip^ and cry " get up " When I get the 
planks of my platform together " spit on it," if you dare. 

Yours tridy, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 

LETTER VII. 

Dear Sir : At length it is virtually admitted that ' a question^ has ex- 
isted from the beginning of this controversy. It is true the concession 
indicates slight reluctance, and is accompanied by a kind of verbal ne- 
gation — as though the medium unconsciously resisted the influence of 
the conviction — still, it merits a gracious reception, seeing it measura- 
bly relieves my correspondent from the former Quixotic aspect of his 
first efforts. Since it is decided that there is a question, and also that 
you have the affirmative, the reader may be authorized to anticipate 
more positive results. While the question, in its present form, has no 
direct claims on your humble servant, it is sufficiently obvious that a 
most important duty — onus jprohandi — is demanded at your hands. 

Permit me to remind you that seven of the Twelve Letters, required 
to account for the Manifestations on the principles of physical science, 
have already appeared, and only one solitary fact — for which a Spiritual 
origin was ever claimed — has thus far been introduced. The attempts to 
discountenance that fact — to disprove it, or explain it away — have been 
various according to circumstances. At one time you discovered the 
spasmodic action of Mr. Powler's nerves in the unequal spreading of the 
ink on the parchment, and then the hypothetical '■sulsidtus tendinum^ was 
palpable evidence of the " abnormal magnetic state which exists while 
he is writing." On another occasion the internal evidence was presum- 
ed to authorize the suspicion that Edward was naturally gifted with re- 
markable powers of " imitation" — was " accustomed to drawing," and 
" of course used to forms, sizes, simUars and resemblances, in lines, curves 
and circles" — all assumed withoiit evidence and against the facts — and that 
he had exercised his faculties for fraudulent purposes. The position first 
assumed being indefensible, of course nothing remained but to assail 
the Spiritual theory, and the facts in the case, from a different stand 
point. Such changes are easily accomplished under circumstances of 
urgent necessity ; and your philosophy — so admirably plastic! — as readi- 
ly adapts itself to one hypothesis as the other — mutatis mutandis. In 
your last letter you intimate with great complacency that you have met 



84 A DISCUSSION. 

the case fairly — in no way misrepresenting tlie facts — at the same time 
you manage to have all the witnesses disappear in a most mysterious 
manner, and affirm that " such momentous questions are sought to be 
settled by the testimony of a single individual ! And here this exhibition 
of your ' fairness' almost approaches the sublime ; especially, as you go 
on to express " much regrtf'' that I did not furnish more evidence. You 
would dine every week oxi fresh testimony^ though you had failed to di- 
gest the first repast — you would have the whole of the letter from Prof. 
Bush, when you had not deigned to notice the portion already received ! 

I must have a limited indulgence to speak of that remarkable fact — 
so beautifully illustrative of your theory — imported from the Shetland 
Isles. I infer, from the spirit of your rejoinder, that you would have the 
reader deem my criticism out of place, and indicative of a capacity for 
small things ; but the intelligent reader knows as well as Dr. Richmond 
precisely how the case stands. When learned men express their well- 
founded convictions, we may believe ; but the coup d^tat to which 
Doctors, as well as Princes, sometimes resort in an emergency, is quite 
another afiau-, and few will fail to make the distinction. But the man- 
ner in which you propose to help yourself out of the dilemma, and to 
extricate Dr. rlibbert, is extremely amusing. " Dr. H., you sv,ppose, 
only gives the average breadth and thickness of the rock." This can 
not be, for he states that the ichole rock was ten feet broad, " in places,'''' 
which distinctly implies that other portions were much less, and indeed 
that ten feet was not the average but the maximum breadth. But if 
the Doctor designed to give the average breadth of the whole mass, he 
doubtless also gives the average width of the fragments, which only im- 
poses a more grievous tax on our credulity. Now the average of the 
two pieces particularly described was just eighteen feet and six inches, so 
that the breadth of the third and largest fragment — the one said to have 
'been forty feet long, and which was thrown into the sea — is literally re- 
duced to nothing. Not wishing to criticise small matters, I pass over 
what is said about the relative thickness of the whole and its parts. The 
difference is only twenty per cent on the side of the fragments, and that's 
not much ! 

It is well known that the apparent magnitude of external objects very 
much depends on the medium through which they are viewed. By the 
aid of certain optical instruments huge things become diminutive, and 
minute objects assume the most gigantic proportions. Some persons 
seem to be provided with a sort of mental camera olscura, into which 
the light reflected from all objects is admitted by invisible lenses, which 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 85 

magnify or reduce the apparent size of the objects at the pleasure of 
the possessor. The instrument is self-adjihsting. While looking at the 
'autographical manuscript,' you had iti a double convex lens which dis- 
closed monstrous imperfections. " John Penn looped his h — instead of 
his old stem" ; Jefferson progressed the loop to the right ; " Richard 
Henry Lee looped both his h and his y" ; while Francis Lightfoot Lee 
looped his h, and dotted his^ir^^ ^," instead of " the last one." These, 
under the great magnifying power of your mind — as adjusted for the 
occasion — became matters of vast moment. The little ' dot over the 
first i' suddenly swelled into grand and more than capital dimensions, 
and became a mountain of evidence against the claims of the spirits. 
Things of this nature were so momentous, in your judgment, as to be 
deemed worthy to occupy the whole of your fourth letter, while the 
writing of a single paragraph in review of one of your facts, (?) the 
statement of which involves utier impossihilities, exposes me to the charge 
of being hypercritical. In this case you evidently look through the con- 
cave lens, and the mistake, on your part, grows " beautifully less" while 
the occasion for criticism disappears altogether. 

In discussing " the sources of motion in fluids," you distinctly men- 
tioned heat, giving it the first place. According to Webster, the term 
source is defined to mean, the "7?r5^ caztse ;" ^^ original ;''^ '■^ the Jirst 
producer ;"' " he or that which originates, &c." If you have abolished 
the old definitions in Ohio, please send us your lexicon that we may 
know what you mean. The word heat represents both a sensation and 
a substance, (?) and on account of its dual meaning, it is not so suitable 
a term, in certain relations, as caloric, which is only ap^^lied to the prin- 
ciple or caicse of the sensation. When the terms heat and cold are used 
to denote certain sensations, both indicate merely relative conditions, and 
whether the causes of those sensorial impressions are substances, or merely 
conditions of other forms of matter, scientific experiments have never 
clearly demonstrated. I know that caloric, latent and sensible, is pre- 
sumed to be a substance — it may be so — and the experiments performed 
at the Academy del cimento, at Florence, and subsequently repeated 
with entire success at Greneva — showing the immense force exerted by 
freezing-water — were supposed to warrant the presumption that cold, 
also, is a substance. Later philosophers, however, undertake to account 
for the effects on a different hypothesis, and the word cold, when em- 
ployed to represent the cause of the sensation, is now generally under- 
stood to denote merely the absence of sensible caloric. And thus it ap- 
pears that heat, instead of being a principal source of motion and chief 



86 " A DISCUSSION. 

among the force-agents, does not develop so great a force as we see ex- 
hibited in its absence. That latent caloric still exists in water, in its 
solid state, is very obvious from the fact that, nuder certain circumstan- 
ces, and without being congealed, it can be reduced to a temperature 
several degrees below the freezing point. Philosophers, however, have not 
been inclined to ascribe the sudden expansion that occm-s during the 
process of solidification, to the remaiuing latent heat. I shall not be 
greatly surprised to learn that my worthy friend 'has consulted his pref- 
erences by that romantic ride, " down the declivities of the North pole." 
Such an excursion, at " lightning " speed, and " astride of an iceberg ^'''^ 
certainly suggests a novel and original mode of escaping the force of all 
criticism, and especially such as relates to your views of heat and motion 
in fiuids. 

I had occasion to refer to the ebb and flow of the ocean tides, to show 
that yom' caloric hypothesis did not account for this ceaselsss motion in 
the waters. Your rejoinder consists of a rhetorical flourish about "ri- 
ding on cold moon-beams into the region of shadows," which of course 
affects my remarks on that subject quite as much as it does the tides 
themselves. 

Yom' nest illustration, of the mundane origin of the Spii'itual Mani- 
festations, is derived from the peculiar powers of the torpedo and the 
gymnotv.s. I am aware that these animals are furnished with a kind of 
electrical battery, which for self-preservation, and for the purpose of se- 
curing then" prey, they discharge, suddenly, and in such a manner as to 
give a powerful shock to the nervous systems of other animals. But 
this proves nothing with respect to the human capacity. Man is not so 
organized as to admit of this powerful concentration and disruptive dis- 
charge of animal electricity ; nor will a galvanic battery and any num- 
ber of electrical eels enable us to account for Revelation and miracles. 

As the phenomena of vital and voluntary motion, in animals and man, 
depend on the distribution of electric currents, it must necessarily fol- 
low that various forms and conditions of matter, whether taken into the 
system, or placed in intimate external relations to the body, will influ- 
ence the organic functions. Any object that will suddenly attract or re- 
pulse the vital electricity, will influence vital motion in a corresponding 
degree. Thus when a powerful magnet is placed in close proximity to 
a sick or sensitive subject — one who has but little voluntary power, re- 
sistance of foreign influence, or self-control over the functions of the 
nervous system — the electric aura is suddenly disturbed, and, under its 
rapid and irregular motion, the nerves vibrate in an involuntary and un- 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 87 

controlable manner, producing " cramps, spasms, &c." A powerful 
brain, highly electrical, and energized by a human spirit, might produce 
similar effects on a very impressible subject ; but all this most signally 
fails of accomplishing the object, if the facts are cited to prove the sub- 
lunary origin of the Spiritual phenomena. 

That vital electricity is the great agent in aU the phenomena of vital 
motion and sensation, I believe ; moreover, this agent and its relations 
constitute an integral part of my system as well as of yours. I have 
not been indifferent to the discoveries in this particular direction. I have 
heard of Alfred Smee, and Reichenbach and Grregory are names not 
wholly unknown to me. I respect the authorities you have cited, but 
unfortunately they do not serve your special purpose in the present issue. 
We have no evidence that they even believe in the facts of the Spirit- 
ual Manifestations, if we except Mr. Davis and Dr. Buchanan, both of 
whom entertain the Spiritual theory. Thus the very persons, on 
whose experiments and observations you chiefly rely, saw none of the 
spiritual phenomena while engaged in their important researches, nor 
did they pretend to have discovered a scientific solution of kindred mys- 
teries. What you have proved, therefore, in the letters already pub- 
lished, I was ready to admit before the discussion commenced ; what 
you have merely assumed, it wiU be difficult to prove. Here I await 
the receipt of your next letter, and with sentiments of friendly regard, 
am, Sincerely thine, 

S. B. BEITTAN. 



OD-FORCE.-FACTS. 

DR B. W. EICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 



LETTER VIII. 



Dear Sir : I am in excellent humor this morning, and IwUl steal the 
march on you by writing you another letter before seeing another of 
your replies. Not having to stop to set you right^ something valuable 
may be looked for. As the " Manifestations " may be made to play an 
important part in this number, I call attention to the first case of willing 
dead matter^ on record. History relates that the sorceries of Simon Ma- 
gus consisted, in making trees grow where he pleased (it so appeared to 
the beholder) in passing through the streets attended by the ghosts of 
the departed, in passing through the air from place to place, (like Mr 
Grordon the medium,) and in making chairs and tables move about or 
change places in the room as he willed or desired them. He was called 
a sorcerer and condemned by the aposfles ; and the fathers of the church 
have left just enough on record of his doings to show us that, the strange 
manifestations of Simon were, in part biological — in part " second 
sight," and in part, the same physical signs that attend our mediums — 
moving chairs and tables — by will or desire. He also made a sickle 
reap without hands, very rapidly. The facts related by Dr. Kerner, in 
the Seeherin of Prevorst, are oi a similar character. A Mr. Hahn had 
taken up residence in a castle in Silesia, and with him was a French 
soldier named Kern. Strange sounds were heard in the room and in ad- 
joining rooms. Their furniture was moved about, caps, napkins, candle 
snuffers and other articles were raised from the floor or stand and dropped 
again. A napkin rose up from the floor to the ceiling over-head and 
slowly fluttered down again ; also, a basin of water was suddenly emp- 
tied of its contents, while heating for the purposes of shaving. Flashes of 
light were seen darting from corner to corner of the room, while these things 
were occurring. Kern left, and the phenomena ceased ; he was a me- 
dium undoubtedly for these occurrences. What is singular, this castle 
was finally destroyed by lightnings a few years after, and a skeleton found 
in the cellar, confirmed the belief that spirits were engaged in the capers, 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 89 

as they had been seen about the premises. Kern saw the ghost of his 
dog one day come into the room — when the poor fellow was locked in 
the barn still alive. I explain the above facts by the magnetic condition 
of Kern and probably the decomposition of a dead body in the cellar be- 
neath, had something to do with the manifestations.* The place seemed 
also to be highly electrical, as the castle was destroyed by lightning. I 
notice two classes of facts of a physical character. The first seems to be 
the work of vaeuiim, the second of mental attraction and re^idsion. 

The od-force must be kept in mind as T pass on. A boy, a medium, 
put his hand over the top of a pump — the pump-handle moved, and 
brought water. On removing his hand, the pumping ceased. The 
pump, all know, acts by vacuum. The od-foree of this magnetic boy 
passed from the hand to the water below — it being of the nature of light 
— and moving about 200,000 times as fast as air — its sudden passage 
through the air to the water below, would move the air upward and form 
a vacuxim. If a spirit aided the boy, (and one professed to attend him 
who wrote his name " Hog Devil,") did the spirit operate through the 
boy's will and hand on the od-force .? or did the spirit take hold on the 
pump-handle and work it } "Why did not the spirit work the pump 
when the boy moved his hand from over it } or could not " Hog Devil " 
pump, only as the boy — aided by some indefinable somehowf— connected 
with his hand .'' This lad on going up staiis near some corn, the ears 
were set to flying about as if suddenly struck by an unseen force, some 
ears passed out the window. The od-force from the boys hands passed 
suddenly to the corn and scattered it about, is probably the right so- 
lution. 

Let us take another class of phenomena. A lady, a powerful medi- 
um, on retiring to bed and extinguishing the light, was attended by sin- 
gular demonstrations. An old musket was brought into her room from 
a back chamber, with a lot of old cartridge boxes. Her pillow was 
taken from under her head and thrown at a person standing on the stairs. 
A tumbler, on the stand near her bed, was never touched ; also a watch 
with glass crystal, and a band-box with a bottle of cologne water, were 
never disturbed. When the bottle was taken from the box, it was up- 
set and put in confusion like other matters. Her trunk, filled with her 
clothing^ standing in her chamber was set to bounding, first one end then 
the other would rise from the floor and come down with force, as it 
moved by an invisible hand — an unseen force. Considerable straw was 
pulled from her bed, through a very small hole in the tick, and also 
the clothes hanging in the room during these capers would move from 
* See Appendix, JS'ote K i See Appendix, Note L 



90 A DISCUSSION. 

the wall and swing to and from the wall as if moved by a fluid, or air 
in motion. The gun, rusty and magnetic, would be easily and highly 
charged with the magnetic od-force of the lady (for Von Reichenbach 
has demonstrated that the od-force of magnetic persons is identical with 
that of the horse-shoe magnet) and drawn by attraction toward herself. 
The glass tumbler, being a bad conductor — although it imbibes the od- 
force and becomes magnetic, yet in a less degree ; and here we see why 
the tumbler, watch and cologne bottle were not moved about by her 
mental magnetism. The pillow was charged with the same force and 
sent toward the person who was scared and in the negative state. The 
fluid passing from her body, hands and eyes, charged the clothing on 
the wall and of necessity put them in motion. The fomites of small- 
pox, or contagion, of cholera or plague is absorbed by clothing, and let- 
ters, and give these diseases to persons after some months have elapsed. 
Plague may be transmitted in a similar manner. The fact that these 
occurrences took place after the light was extinguished, I think, finds 
its explanation in the fact that the current of this od-force or nerve 
aura was not opposed by the waves of light from the candle— they 
would oppose each other, just as one current of water would oppose 
another. Did the spirit carry that gun out of the chamber to her room .'' 
Then why did she not upset the tumbler, break her cologne bottle, and 
the watch ^ for this spirit, as you will see, owed the medium a spite.* 

Below stairs, in the same house, with the same medium, in the even- 
ing, a chair was thrown through the air — a settee was rocked — a bureau 
moved toward her as she passed by it. As she passed suddenly through 
a room, chairs and a table moved into the line through which she passed j 
as she passed the second door, a stick of wood in a deep box fell on the 
floor, near the track she passed through. This is apparently the work 
of vacuum and attraction combined. These articles, occupied as they 
were by the family, and probably the medium, the chairs and settee 
would be charged with the fluid and moved about by the attraction of a 
stronger magnet. All this, and no " thunder clap .?" Surely \ for it 
is clear that the medium by giving attention and sitting down and turning 
the od-force in another direction, gets small " claps of thunder " or 
" rappings " — ^but the fluid when moving about loose rushes into the best 
conductors and they are attracted accordingly. Is this more strange 
than to see one horse-shoe magnet attract another — or move large pieces 
of iron or steel — and yet no will-force is acting at all in the magnets. 
Kerner states that the Seeherin, when in the magnetic state, was in a 
degree deprived of her gravitation ; when standing he would extend his 
* See Appendix, Note M. 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 91 

hand and put his fingers against her's, and lift her from the floor ; this 
phenomenon is the work of the same force — only in this case Kerner's 
will, though unconsciously acted through the medium of the nerve- 
aura, and moved the body of the woman up and down. She could not 
be sunk in water when in this condition. In experiments on magnetic 
persons — in the biolological and imjpressiUe state — I have seen them at- 
tracted by the hand, and drawn from their seats, in spite of their wills 
to the contrary. Persons in the biological state may be so attracted to 
a staff, or a chair, as to be unable to drop it ; it clings to his hand like 
one magnet to another. I once saw a subject fixed to his chair, and 
the chair to the floor — and a stout man who tried to lift him succeed- 
ing in raising the chair from the floor — but it clung to the subject while 
he lifted only the subject. This is will-magnetism — and you object to 
it, as irrelevant. Recently a lady in our region was told, while asleep, 
to visit a sick person some miles off ; the medium went ; fell into her 
trance state, and she appeared so singular that the family were alarmed, 
having had no notice of her coming ; and they called in some men to 
carry her out of door, and lo, her chair stuck to the floor ! they could 
not lift her — she was suddenly very heavy. My explanation is that she 
connected herself to the floor by will — through the od-force. Yours 
would be that the spii'its held her down — but how .'' by od-force — or 
biologically } 

I Diust now return to the medium, who seemed to attract chairs and 
tables as she passed by them. Engaged in the laudable business of 
studying anatomy, she had a subject whose spirit insisted on being buried. 
The rafs^ while studying, would come on the table, and on a dry skull 
lying on it, and also on the book before her. They had been engaged 
in dissecting, one day, and the ladies left the room first ; before the 
doctor left he changed the position of the subject — laying one hand across 
the breast, and the other by the side. During the night the ladies 
thought the old woman entered their room in person, and various occurrences 
were related of what passed. But on comparing notes, the medium saw 
the ghost — not as they last sato it — but as the doctor left it, with one 
arm across the hreast and the other hy her side. The door remained locked, 
and the subject was undisturbed, and the inevitable conclusion was that 
they had not been visited by the dead subject, but had seen her by a 
biological impression through the mind of the doctor. They saw her 
just as he left her — hence they took their image or ghost from his mind. 
Here we have a clear case of one mind unconsciously operating on an- 
other, and producing the image of a ghost in the mind of the person that 



92 A DISCUSSION. 

seemed to be real. And yet the medium, when seeing it, thought her- 
self awake and conscious. If the spirit could reenter her body and 
walk into the room, through a locked door, she could have borrowed a 
hoe and buried her own body — the thing she seemed to be clamoring 
about. If she took up the body and carried it in, she had strength to 
bury herself — any man would have loaned a hoe and pick for so reason- 
able a purpose, just to spite the doctor for being engaged in such a 
monstrous business. You say that the s][)irit impressed the mind of the 
medium — but the impression followed the mind of the dissecter who last 
saw the subject, and clearly fixes the occurrences between him and the 
medium. When the dissection was finished, the bones were put into a 
kettle filled with lye and lime, to clean the bones, and set to boiling. 
The raps became so loud that it raised a riot in the neighborhood — the 
medium was alarmed — the sounds came around the room — on the sides 
of the house — articles in the room were moved about, and a bureau full 
of articles approached the boiling kettle. You say the spirit was of- 
fended because her bones were being boiled. 

This is my explanation : The od-force, says Baron Von Reichenbach, 
is developed in graves by decaying bodies. A case occurred in which a 
sensitive patient saw a ghost — over a recent grave. He took another 
clear-seer to the spot ; she only saw a light Jiame — an odic-light about 
six feet high ; the other transformed it into a ghost ; the subject felt the 
effect of the od-force on approaching it. The Seeherin of Prevorst was 
always affected when near a grave ; many other persons have the same 
sensations — and the horse is always sensitive near graves, and sometimes 
acts as wildly as Tam O'Shanter's gray mare, " Meg." The Baron 
had the body disinterred, and the qidck-lime removed, and the ghost 
and od-light both disappeared — thus unfolding a mystery that has been 
the terror of all ages among the ignorant and timid. 

Now, put these facts with my ghost-story. The bones and flesh im- 
mersed in lye and lime, and put to boiling, effected a rapid decomposi- 
tion of the parts, and the od-force — as in the Baron's case — was rapidly 
evolved ; the medium being charged with the fluid. Also, we get a 
combined force, that clearly accounts for the uproar about the woman's 
boiling bones. Another fact : A dry skull used by the ladies was seen 
one night floating in the air around their bed. It occurred again, and a 
brother of one of the ladies came and caught it, and returned it to a 
safe place. When it stood on the stand, it would be seen trembling, as 
if alive ; when the face was turned from them, it would never turn 
around while they looked at it ; the moment they turned away it would 



RICIBIOND AND ERITTAN. 93 

face them. My explanation is, that the skull being a natural conductor 
of the od-force, it became charged with it — in life the currents naturally 
run toward the face, and when charged from the medium they naturally 
run in that direction, as the currents do in the needle or magnet ; when 
turned around, they run in the same direction of course. The medium 
on turning her face from the skull, and looking in an opposite direction, 
changed the course of the currents which affected the skull and it would 
then turn and face her by the attraction upon it. This medium, in a 
magnetic state, when at rest in bed, still had a connection with the dry 
skull, and, charged with the yital currents of her own brain, it was at- 
tracted as one magnet attracts on another, and having found the center 
of gravitation, it floated around the bed and over it — as the earth floats 
around the sun. Various bones in her use have been attracted to her 
bed, and when returned to their place they would find their way back. 
You have my explanation of these strange occui'rences. 

The above facts are well attested, and I think can be relied on. I 
have not given all, and keep names, of course, from the public, as the 
medium wishes to avoid any public connection with such strange events. 

I mentioned these facts in The Tribune^ last winter, and got severely 
chastised for it. This I took coolly and kindly — as I am a natural 
martyr and love to suffer for righteousness' sake — and in this case I en- 
joyed the consolation of a severe scolding from one of the best-looking 
women in Ohio — though she be a medium. I desire to injure no one's 
feelings, but want all the light for the Telegraph that can be given, 
with injury to no one. 

I shall continue my notice of physical facts. 

Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 

LETTER VIII. 

Dear Sir : The Spiritual Manifestations comprehend a great variety 
of facts essentially different from the phenomena of gravitation, mate- 
rial magnetism, electric affinity, and the dynamics of imponderable flu- 
ids. This is made manifest by the almost universal skepticism, with re- 
spect to the facts themselves, which we find to prevail among learned 
men. The professors in our colleges and men of distinguished scientific 
attainments generally — indeed almost all who are profoundly versed in 
the mysteries of the material universe have, by their determined oppo- 
sition, intimated that such phenomena as we ascribe to spirits do not 
come within the sphere of physical causes. The laws of attraction and 
repulsion, the power of the magnet and the processes of chemistry, in- 
stead of furnishing a satisfactory solution of the modern mysteries, have 
lead the most erudite men to reject the facts, or to ascribe them to fraud 
and delusion. This general unbelief, among those who have deeply 
studied the laws of material nature, is most significant. It plainly shows 
that, in the opinion of those best qualified to judge, the facts wholly 
transcend the capacity of physical agents, and this is rendered the more 
conspicuous by the very first attempt to apply your hypothesis to par- 
ticular examples. 

Here allow me to remind you that physical phenomena, or such as 
are ascertained to depend on merely physical causes, are essentially the 
same in different ages and countries, wherever the same material instru- 
mentalities exist. The phenomena of electricity, as they occur in the 
earth and atmosphere, are what they were centuries ago, although they 
occur more frequently in some countries than in others, and are more 
startling and terrible in warm than in cold climates ; yet in their nature, 
they are essentially the same the world over — if, perhaps, we except 
the Shetland Isles ! In like manner vital electricity is, and was, as much 
a constituent element in all men in every period of the world's history, 
as it now is in those whom we call ' mediums.' We may as well sup- 
pose that the ancients existed without blood and without brains, as with- 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 95 

out vital electricity^ and such other forms of imponderable matter as are 
necessary to the development of animal and human life. Thus, if the 
Baron's od-forcc is essential to the mysterious functions of life, volun- 
tary motion and sensation, it must be generally diffused and coextensive 
with animal and human existence ; and hence the manifestations, if 
chiefly dependent on this agent, would be likely to occur among all men 
and through all time. 

Scientific discoveries have enabled us to make an application of the 
great forces in Nature to many grand and important purposes of life. 
But our discoveries have not served to augment the resources of Nature, 
or to energize the springs which govern her stupendous movements. All 
that science has done, or can do, is to observe and classify outward phe- 
nomena and illustrate their relations to eternally existing laws. The 
utmost limit of all our attainments has not witnessed the slightest in- 
crease of power in these potential agents. Light and electricity are the 
same everywhere, and their effects are substantially the same. Nor am 
I aware that electrical eels have any powers, at the present day, that 
did not belong to their remote ancestors. Doubtless electricity is now 
precisely what it was when Jesus compared the splendor of his coming 
to ' the lightning which cometh out of the East and shineth even unto 
the West.' To assume, therefore, that the mysterious phenomena, now 
so prevalent in this country, are dependent on these physical causes is 
offensive to reason, and inconsistent with the facts and the laws on which 
they depend. Men have been sufficiently physical and electrical in all 
ages to produce sucb manifestations, if they depended alone on the in- 
strumentalities referred to. 

The absurdity of your hypothesis is not mitigated in the least by the 
assumption that the will controls the agents employed in the manifesta- 
tions. Indeed its inconsistency with the known laws of matter and 
mind is thus rendered more apparent, since there have been men of 
unyielding nerve and iron will in all ages. The heroes of the olden 
time, whose giant forms were encased in burnished steel, as they went 

forth to 

" lick 

The gory dust from off the feet of war," 

must have been the best possible human electrical conductors. But I 
need hardly remind you that they were not media for the peculiar phe- 
nomena you propose to elucidate. Nor are the men of vigorous consti- 
tution and strong vitality, the persons in whose presence the Manifesta- 
tions chiefly occur. The fact is undeniable that the media, with occa- 



96 A DISCUSSION 

sional exceptions, are electrically negative. Many of tbem are very 
delicately organized, and a large proportion are little children, while 
strong men, in whose bodies the greatest amount of vital electricity is 
elaborated in a given time, are rarely visited by the mysterious powers. 
Thus the facts are plainly opposed to your assumption, and can not, 
even by a possibility, be coerced into the service of sustaining a theory 
that violates the eternal laws of Nature and Reason, as clearly as it de- 
nies the claims of the Spirits. 

In concluding these general observations, on the nature and capacity of 
natural forces, I can not suppress the remark that, the foregoing consid- 
erations appear to subvert the hypothesis applied to the particular facts 
narrated in your last letter. It is of little consequence whether we 
deny the facts outright, or resist the great lessons which they manifestly 
teach. The results, so far as they affect human happiness and the in- 
terests of science, are not essentially different. Scientific men have been 
accustomed to demand /flea's in all their researches after truth, and they 
have hitherto professed a willingness to accept such conclusions only as 
legitimately depend on well attested phenomena. Of late, however, 
the supply greatly exceeds the demand, and facts are now at a discount. 
When the facts obviously point to a spiritual source, men of science 
either become strangely taciturn, or they prefer to diversify their men- 
tal exercises by indulging in wild, improbable and romantic speculations. 
Before passing to a summary review of the contents of your last letter, 
I must not omit to observe that, your facts and references are, for the 
most part, extremely indefinite. You rarely give names or localities, 
and in yoiir allusions to authors you never mention the page, and sel- 
dom indicate the title of the book. In speaking of persons and occur- 
rences, be kind enough to give to each — though it be an 

" airy nothing — 

A local habitation and a name." 

This at least will somewhat divest your facts of that air of fiction which 
attaches to some of the statements already made. 

Your effort to marry the theory to the facts will answer an important 
purpose, though the illegitimacy of the union must be self-evident. The 
curious facts presented in your first paragraph are explained, yoii say., 
" by the magnetic condition of Kern, and probably the decomposition 
of a dead body in the cellar." But allow me to remind you, my dear 
sir, that no explanation is given. Merely saying that you refer the 
mysterious occurrences to the magnetic state of Kern, or to some undis- 
covered energy peculiar to '■dry 5o?ies,' proves nothing whatever but the 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 97 

monstrous ctaracter of your assumption. That the living, conscious 
spirit of the man — who probably experienced a violent death* — was at- 
tracted to the spot, and manifested his presence by physical effects, is 
not at all improbable ; and the probability of such an occurrence re- 
ceives strong confirmation from a multitude of similar examples equally 
well authenticated. Moreover, that the spirit might have psychologized 
Kern, and presented the image of his dog before him, in order to re- 
mind him that the poor animal was '■'■shut 7<j?," and perhaps suffering 
from hunger or thirst, is, no doubt, quite possible. But to presume 
that Kern unconsciously evolved a visible magnetic dog from his brains 
and projected him out of doors^ and that the creature was first seen as he 
came into the room to his master^ instead of on going out from hivi^ is to 
make a draft on our credulity that we are forced to dishonor. You do 
not attempt to demonstrate that a highly magnetic state of the system 
is adapted to produce such singular effects, or that Kern was in such a 
state at the time of their occurrence. You do not undertake to show 
that even the bones of dead men have a power that living men have not. 
But you assume this, and more — everything is assumed^ and everything is 
improbable to the last degree. If the phenomena depended on the mag- 
netic state of Kern, they would doubtless have followed him when he 
left the castle. To conjecture that they were produced by the decom- 
position of the human remains, is at once to ascribe powers to the dead 
body which you boldly deny to the living spirit ! Such notions are only 
taught in the school of Materialism. If the bones of one man generated 
a power sufficient to move the furniture in the old castle, the number 
deposited around St. Paul's might be expected to evolve force enough to 
move the church edifice down Broadway as far as the Battery ! 

The fact that the castle was subsequently struck by lightning, if it 
proves anything, proves the very reverse of what you suppose, name- 
ly, that it was not " highly electrical " — that it was in a negative- 

* While holding an interview with what claimed to he the spirit of a distin- 
guished divine, the invisible intelligence communicated the following, as the rea- 
son why strange manifestations of an occult presence occurred at a place in New- 
England : "A murder was committed there more than fifty years since. The 
spirit of the murdered man often visits the place, and demonstrates his presence 
by physical effects. When the earthly life is cut short, by accident or other 
sudden and violent means, it is easier for the spirit to produce these physical de- 
monstrations, because it left the body while in the exercise of all its powers, and 
before its work on earth was completed. It is for this reason that mysterious 
sights and sounds have always been most frequent where similar transactions^ 
have occurred. 

7 



98 A DISCUSSION. 

state. Wherefore, on a certain occasion, the accumulated electricity 
of the atmosphere was discharged at that point, and the building was 
destroyed. 

Your fact in Odic-hydronamics next claims attention. You affirm 
that, when a certain " boy put his hand over the top of a pump, the piimp- 
handle moved and brought water ;" and you suppose that the od-force 
descended from the boy's hand and displaced the air, thus causing a 
vacuum by reason of which the lever moved, &c. The explanation, so- 
called, indicates a great want of attention to the mechanism of the 
pump , or, otherwise, the od-force infringed the principles of mechanics 
and the laws of atmospheric pressure. Had the od-force displaced the 
atmosphere in the pump, causing a vacuum to exist, the water would 
not only have risen and opened the valve, but, so long as the medium's 
hand remained over the top, it would have flowed continuously^ the 
weight of the atmosphere inside being thus removed ; and there would 
hate been no motion of the lever or piston. 

Before leaving this case, permit me to suggest several questions, 
which, as you claim that the Baron sustains your theory, you may be 
able to answer. 1. If the od-force is "of the nature of light," why 
did not the sun., when at his meridian and shining into the top of the 
pump, produce a ' vacuum ' and cause the water to be discharged .? 
2. Do you learn from Reiehenbach's Dynamics that the od-force has 
power to ea:pel the atmosphere from the place where it exists .? 3. Does 
the Baron demonstrate that the od-force has power to converse and to 
xorite its name 1 and did it give the same name at Vienna that it gave 
the boy in Ohio } 4. Does the Baron also prove that corn is a good 
conductor of the od-force .? 

You next cite some very remarkable phenomena, alleged to have oc- 
ciirred in the sleeping-room of a lady. An " old musket " was, in your 
opinion, " highly charged with the magnetic od-force of the lady," and 
this accounts — we are assured on the authority of my medical friend — 
for its suddenly leaving its place in the " back chamber," and marching 
into the room where the medium had retired for the night. We have 
heard that loaded guns sometimes go off., but this one came to — the lady. 
Under ordinary circumstances, such behavior on the part of a gun would 
be deemed very strange, but in the light of your explanation we are 
taught that when a gun is charged with od-force it is all perfectly natu- 
ral. It was " rusty and magnetic " and, therefore, easily charged at a 
distance. Most rational reason ! But the cartridge boxes — usually made 
of wood and leather — were they also " rusty and magnetic " that they 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 99 

followed ? or was it from long companionsliip and tte power of habit? 
The reader may be curious to know whether it was from force or affect 
Hon that the boxes accompanied the gun ? It was supposed to be set- 
tled, some time since, by scientific observations and experiments, that 
bodies in opposite dates — with respect to the imponderable elements that 
surround or permeate them — exhibit attraction ; but your hypothesis 
makes the phenomena depend on other causes. The magnetic attrac- 
tion was not exhibited until a partial or total equilibrium was established, 
by the odic emanations which proceeded from the person to the thing. 
Moreover, you affirm that the od-force charged the pillow also, notwith- 
standing feathers, if I mistake not, are but a poor conductor. Will you 
explain why the pillow was so violently repulsed — was thrown frovi the 
lady^ and down stairs, while loading the gun caused it to move in an op- 
posite direction — to he attracted 1 I have been present on several oc- 
casions when the table was so powerfully exercised that two strong men 
could not restrain its movements. Now, if ponderable objects, and 
especially fire-arms^ are liable to become so over-loaded^ the danger of 
using them will be found to be much greater than has been generally 
supposed. A doulle-harreled gun might perhaps be so heavily charged 
as to shoulder a small man and walk off with him ! especially if the 
man was distinguished for a strong will, and the gun happened to be 
" rusty and magnetic.'''' Upon the presumption that a spirit conveyed 
the gun into the lady's apartment, you wish to know " why he did not 
upset the tumbler, break her cologne bottle and the watch .?" I reply, 
because he knew better ; all common sense people are accustomed to 
handle glassware more caixtiously than they do guns, cartridge boxes, 
trunks, etc. 

Again, as the same medium " passed suddenly through a room, chairs 
and a table moved into a line " behind her. These phenomena you 
ascribe to vacuum, and yet who does not know that no vacuum is formed, 
or can be produced in this way. If the thing were even possible, any 
other person, as well as the medium, passing through a room with the 
same velocity, would produce precisely the same results. One body 
passing through air will displace the atmospheric medium as readily 
and thoroughly as any other body of the same magnitude and momen- 
tum. Air is so rarified that it is not a very sluggish element, and it 
would be quite likely to ' keep up ' with the lady, unless she traveled 
much faster than people do this way; especially as the surrounding atmo- 
spheric pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch, would assist it 
along, with a force equal to about tivrlre nr fifteen tuns on the ontire 



100 A DISCUSSION. 

surface of the body of air displaced. But this marching of all the house- 
hold furniture after a medium is not, in your judgment, more wonder- 
ful than that a horse-shoe magnet should attract large pieces of iron or 
steel. In my humble opinion it is quite another aflPair. The horse- 
shoe magnet has no power to attract wood ; it will not ' move the 
bureau ' nor ' lift the trunk ;' it will not repulse feathers^ so as to send 
them down stairs ; neither will it ' scatter the corn^ nor ' j)ull the straw 
out of the led.'' We must, therefore, ascribe such phenomena to the 
operations of a different power. 

When you say, in substance, that a staff, chair, or other object, will 
cling to the hand of a biological subject, by virtue of the same princi- 
ple that operates in the magnet, I deny the assertion and affirm the 
thing to be impossible. Moreover, I promise to make the error of the 
statement apparent to every capacity, whenever you attempt to fortify 
the same by any important evidence. The other unlocated facts, (J) 
mentioned in the same connection, could not have been produced by 
any other form of material magnetism aided by the human will in the 
body. If you think otherwise, make an argument in support of your 
hypothesis and I wUl venture to attempt its refutation. 

The remarkable facts witnessed by, and in presence of, a lady who 
was pursuing a course of anatomical studies, I shall notice at length 
hereafter. For the present I defer it, because the case is one of pe- 
culiar interest and some matters of moment appear to have been omitted 
in your statement. I am led to adopt this course from a late per- 
sonal interview with an intelligent friend who is somewhat familiar with 
the facts to which you refer, and whose version differs in several essen- 
tial particulars from the one contained in your letter. I can not resist 
the conviction that the publication of such startling occurrences should 
be accompanied with the testimony necessary to secure their acceptance 
by all candid readers. Facts that can not be authenticated should not 
be introduced in a scientific discussion ; nor should important facts be 
suppressed, merely to gratify a fastidious delicacy that holds in subjec- 
tion to itself the highest interests of science, and the soul's reverence for 
the most sacred realities. A simple statement, concerning the occur- 
rence of phenomena which address themselves to the senses, can not, in 
any manner, commit the author of such statement to my theory or yours. 
The person who testifies is in no way responsible for our conclusions, or 
those of the public at large, any more than the witness is answerable 
for the judgment of the court, or for the more questionable decisions of 
popular opinion. Now as you desire " to suffer for righteousness' sake," 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 101 

allow me to suggest that you had better out with the whole truth — 
call the witnesses and give us a connected statement of all the material 
facts — thus will your ' martyrdom ' be glorious and ' your consolation' 
complete. 

With a lively interest in the general subject of our correspondence, 
and assurances of personal regard and esteem, I am 

Very cordially yours, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA-TEMPERAMENTS OF MEDIA. 

DR B. W. EICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 



LETTER IX. 



Dear Sir : My sixth letter witli reply is received. My first letter 
bears date July 25. August 7th you proposed ^ form of question ; two 
other letters of yours, dated August 24th and September 3rd, " decline 
the discussion " till the " propositions " are accepted. I can not see 
your agreement with yourself, though you doubtless do. I offer you a 
personal meeting to settle our difference where Jdnd words shall be used 
as weapons — till then, as the politicians say, I refer the friends to our 
"life and writings." We don't agree about the " writings " either. 
Harder'' s Magazine, for July, 1851, has the old signers' names. The 
Autografhical Detector, found at any bank, has fifteen hundred names ; 
will the friends get these, and with my criticism, examine and see for 
themselves. Those names I believe to be the work of one hand. Many 
wi'iters have examined them and agree with me. Shall Mr. Fowler's 
hand writing be brought to the side of these autographs, to refute their 
resemblance ? If so reasonable a request is denied, I rest the matter 
where it is. In this I mean nothing personal, further than the facts 
warrant candid criticism. 

I did not intend to say that mediums were all drunk or lunatics. 
The expression, " in a similar way," is a little ambiguous. I intended 
to say that drinkers and lunatics showed new sysmptoms, mental and 
moral, and that a somnambule in his exaltation of powers, might imitate 
writings Mr. Bush seems to have been struck with a similar thought 
in his letter for the Shekinah. Alcohol, opium, belladonna, all poi- 
sons, make a deep impression on the sensorium, and in these moods the 
person exhibits various mental and physical symptoms, which resemble 
the symptoms of mediums. I do not conclude from it, as you hint, that 
they are under the effects of medicine — but of the od-force, probably, 
which makes a still deeper impression on the subject. You say, spirits ; 
I say, physical influences, affect them. I dislike all personalities, and 
have intended to avoid them. We disagree about mediums being in a 
normal state. You ask by what rules of logic I prove that they are ab- 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 103 

normal persons. Two of my little boys are very impressible. I look 
one in the eye and say to him, "you are going to whirl your hands ;" 
he does so, with violence, till I say " all right," and he stops instantly. 
He appears as usual, and did while whirling his hands. I infer that he 
has an abnormal state, from the fact that he involuntarily obeyed my 
will. A man is brought into court, he claims to be sane ; the court sets 
three days, and are about to call him in the normal state • a stranger 
suggests that he is Christ ; the prisoner assents ; the court infers his 
abnormal state from the fact. Augusta M. sets down at a table with 
Mr. B.; soon strange sounds 3iXQ heard — incontestibly connected with the 
medium — I infer her abnormal state from the fact ordinary persons don't 
have such sounds about them. Normal means " according to a rule or 
principle." These persons have neio symptoms added to them, and 
when judged by other persons they are not normal ; they dont't " square " 
with the rule and principle by which we measure the condition of per- 
sons. I am going to hold you to this point. Talking about " more 
vital defects " than abrtiptnessj won't aid your case. 

You assume that trance is one of the most marvelous of the magnetic 
states, and that the spirit leaves the body " — I deny it. I assume that 
the spirit don't leave the body. Augusta M. answered " seven huiulred 
test questions," giving seven hundred demonstrations that she 'was efi rap- 
port with your mind. " H.," referred to in your third letter, was en- 
tranced by your agency. The trance is spontaneous in many persons, as 
much so as sleep., dreaming, or somnambulism. Evidence of this is 
abundant. You had, for forty minutes tried to magnetize him ; you had 
charged him with the od-force of your own body ; it floated over his ner- 
vous system and impressed it with its jpecw-Zmr force. When he came 
into your presence the " imponderable fluid " of your nervous forces 
charged and entranced him. Had I known this fact before, I could have 
found the unknown magnetizer. The impression of a powerful operator 
impresses persons for years. Many persons, on coming into Mesmer's 
presence, were thrown into both trance and spasms. It is not neces- 
sary to suppose that mind acts at all in such cases. Miasms, causing 
fevers, the contagion of cholera, and plague, show that imponderable 
fluids produce strange symptoms. The magnet, the crystal, with Von 
Reichenbach, threw persons into the magnetic sleep or trance. The 
biological state and mesmeric sleep are produced instantly by the sound 
of a word or a wave of the hand, or look of the eye. 

You again refer to " H.," and find, as usual., that J. presume that she 
went into rapport with your mind. You assume that the somnambule- 



104 A DISCUSSION. 

was en rafport with tlie mind of Miss Lind, because the one took sounds 
— or musical ideas — from her mind. I assume that " H.," was tti rajp- 
■port with your mind, for the same reason. 

Two pith balls, electrically charged, attract or repel each other. Two 
balls show the same phenomena in a thunder storm. We assume from 
that fact, and correctly, too, that the same cause is acting. 

While it is known to the savans that one mind has the power of 
mingling with another and absorbing its ideas, you will be puzzled to 
make it so clear as you wish to, that such an occurrence indicates the 
presence of a third mind. But how came the ghost of " H." there } 
They shall have their turn in due time. The lawyers, when dissatisfied 
with one argument, make a second ; the jury commonly suspect both. 
You are in a similar fix. You assume that the case turns on this point. 
Do various magnetic subjects reflect the latent or recent thought in the 
mind. They reflect both, the one and the other, and frequently mix 
the two together. 

In the first place — you was not psychologyzlng " H." A voluntary 
— or involuntary if you please — junction of the two minds occurred, by 
the operation of the life fluid of the one on the other, the intenseness ot 
the impression produced on his mind seemed to correspond to the im- 
pression that " H." made on your mind — hence the first image reflected 
was " H.," then the impression of those icords, not effaced in " thirty 
years," came out protuberant in their horrid fullness. You was not 
impressing him by will, he was searching your mind for facts and ideas. 

Undoubtedly when you impress the subject you would get the recent 
thought ; but you say, mentally, how can I be sure that " H." is here, 
your minds are one .'' " H." is coupled in your mind with the tragedy, 
and his mind catches it as naturally as the hound sce^its the game. You 
say that " H." declared he was not en rapport. I gave you, in my last, 
a case in which one mind unco7isciously impressed a medium with the 
image of a subject under dissection : the subject stood before the mind, 
apparently living ; horrid sounds came from her ghastly half-dissected 
ghost-ship ; the old hag, from a city-hell-house, was mad because they 
would not bury her half-rotten carcass. 

Not to mislead ourselves and others, this law of mental reflection 
must be closely studied. Not only mental, but physical images are 
reflected, and by close-looking we can trace it from mind to mind — the 
facts themselves proving th'? minds en rapport. Gregory went to bed 
with a jug of hot water at his feet; he dreamed of visiting Etna. He 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 105 

had visited Vesuvius, long since, but recently read of Etna. Heat was 
here the cause, or jug-ology. 

A friend sat asleep ; his wife requested a visitor to sing a song. Half 
an hour after, the husband awoke, and pretty soon repeated some lines 
of the song. He thought it strange — he had not thought of it for years. 
Here sound renewed the memory. 

A friend of mine, in a dream, went to his barn ; saw the ditch filled 
with lobsters, their claws armed with a tall blue light — the ghost of 
od-lights probably ; on turning toward his house, saw the whole sky 
filled with an immense frame-work to a building. He had been months 
before painting, for a geologist, lava blocks, and cutting down the strata 
he thought of the fact that, lobsters had worked to the top through 
crevices. Years before, an immense frame-work had deeply impressed 
him. Here the old and new are woven into one, and eshibited to the 
mind. My little boy, three years of age, standing by his mother, said 
all at once — his eye sparkling with new fire — " Pa is coming home 
to-night and L., too ; I see them," I was forty miles from home, my 
return uncertain. It came out as he said. That is mind-reflection. 

Every day shows cases in which mediums take facts from the minds 
of those around them that have slept for twenty, thirty, forty years. 
The law of en rapport understood, the occurrence is no more strange 
than that we should recollect a fact forgotten — it is, in fact, the same 
process of memory. Memory is indestructible. In the Shekinah, (a 
beautiful Monthly, edited by S. B. Brittan of New-York, filled with 
the choicest thoughts from some of the best minds of the age — a feast 
for all thinkers,) page 127, I find this fact : Mr. B. was lecturing in 
Connecticut, and happened to be thinking of a young friend some miles 
distant. At the very moment some persons were trying to mentally 
impress him ; all at once he escaped from their control, and said Mr. 
B. wanted him. 

I have performed many similar experiments, and it proves that mind 
acts on mind through space, as one globe acts upon another, through 
space ; the one the work of mind-matter, the other of an " impondera- 
ble fluid." This admitted, and there is no backing. It is the law ot 
en rapport, and has three reflections. 1. When impressed, it reflects 
the recent impression, 2. When requested to reflect — as in mediums — 
an old fact — it at once acts on the memory, and finds the image " un- 
dimmed in thirty years." 3. When left to the dream movement, void 
of volition, it mixes old and new, and deduces new images. I am going 



106 A DISCUSSION. 

to try to slide all your " communications through this loophole, so fortify 
it. It is a very important point. 

I now return to the od-force, mental attraction and repulsion. A few 
cases occur where spirits claim to move articles without mediums ; but 
the mass of facts show that the medium is indispensable. Mr. Hume's 
recent visit to Poughkeepsie, showed wonders in physical effects. In 
your first letter you attribute the power of the demonstrations to his 
presence, among other mediums. When Mr. Gordon was in New- York, 
last winter, he went into a room with Mr. Partridge. The sofa rolled 
toward him. Vacuum and mental attraction seem involved in the phe- 
nomena. He floated up into the air, and around the room. The un- 
conscious will-force seems greater than ordinary volition. His body 
charged with the od-force performed this feat, partly by gravitation and 
partly by will-power. A table lifted on one side by a person, a spirit 
lifted the other — the medium applied the od-force to one side. Tables 
are lifted on one side, pens and other articles remain on — rendered 
magnets by the od-force and attract each other, while the will of the 
medium lifts the table, repels, attracts, and " makes every fiber give." 

In reasoning upon the od-force, and that mediums are abnormal- 
magnetic-biologic-mesmeric-cataleptic-hysteric-impressible-sick-sensitive 
persons, I have, of necessity, assuvied this fact, until I could reach it 
in order. All Von Eeichenbach's experiment were among this class of 
persons. Cahagnet's experiments were all among this class of individ- 
uals. Mesmeric subjects are among this class ; biological subjects are 
among the same class, and mediums are no exception to the rule, but 
confirm it in every instance known to myself. The temperament of 
these persons must be studied, and their various symptoms in disease and 
apparent health carefully noticed. I appeal to examples for proof of 
my statement. Mediums may be thus classed: 1. Persons whose pa- 
rents are of decided nervous temperaments. 2. Those whose mothers 
are nervous, hysterical, or epileptic. 3. Those whose parents, one or 
both, are subjects of consumption, or whose mothers are sensitive from 
sickness. — I beg pardon of the ladies who may feel accused of hysteria 
— may have the temperament without fits, and if they have both they 
are no more responsible than they are for having the consumptive tem- 
perament. 

1. The most powerful medium I have known is large, well formed, 
large brain, sparkling eye, very nervous — grief throws her into convul- 
sions. Parents nervous temperament. Mother died early. 

2. Three cousins — married ladies — all good mediums ; best at writ- 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 107 

ing : large brain, light skin, black eyes, fine hair, quick motions — all 
nervous and sensitive — a decided hysterical temperament. Mothers 
both of the same temperament. 

3. A young lady — nearly blind for some years, cured by a biological 
wipression — a good mesmeric subject : slim, pale, fine hair and skin, 
blue eyes — a marked nervous temperament. 

4. A mother and little girl : slini, feeble health, blue eyes, light hair, 
nervous fiber marked, and sensitive. Parents and family subjects ot 
hypochondria. 

5. A lady : light eyes and hair, quick motions, large brain, sly ex- 
pression of face — subject to fits — crafty as a policeman. A marked 
nervous and hysterical temperament. Parents unknown to me. 

6. A young lady: quick in intellect, light complexion, medium size, 
hysterically inclined — so deeply impressed with excitement she became 
insane, and now in an asylum. Parents unknown. 

7. Two girls : black eyes and hair, large brain, feeble looking, nerv- 
ous — good rappers. Parents nervous temperament. 

8. A young man : slim, pale, nervous, light hair and eyes, quick 
nervous fiber — prescribes, sees angels, Christ and the devil — has fits, 
hysterics absolutely. Mother a nervous, hysterical, fidgetty compound. 
The highest medical authority pronounce men subjects of hysterical 
phenomena. 

9. A lady : light hair and eyes, quick fiber, vapory and nervous; 
was a long time trying to be a medium ; seemed instantly to take it 
from another medium who was having spasms. She wrote, run, jumped 
about, quivered all over, her head rolled and rocked — violent ppasms 
succeeded. She wis relieved by emetic tartar. 

10. A married lady : long subject to fits ; parents consumptive. She 
is slim, light eyes, and fine nervous fiber. She has periodical catalepsy ; 
preaches ; fits come on at particular hours ; preaches best on a particu- 
lar night ; claims the power to heal disease by the aid of the Holy Ghost 
and Doctor Franklin. She was treated by another medium, and was 
impressed by his nervous condition. Spirits threaten her with sickness 
and death if she refuses to do good. Subject to jerks of the head ahvays 
on one side. She mimics in her sleep the various c?-amps enjoyed by the 
damned.* 

11. A young man : slim, black eyes and hair, quick motions, small 
head; writes rapidly; very nervous. Mother has been very sickly for 
many years. 

12. A young man : large brain, very nervous, writes furiously. His 

* See Appendix, Note N. 



108 A. DISCUSSION. 

sister, wKile the spirits were developing her into a medium, was found to 
be an excellent biological subject. Parents marked nervous tempera- 
ment. 

13. A male : slim, red hair, good brain 5 good writing medium. His 
wife a mesmeric subject and clairvoyant, and writes some. 

14. A highly nervous organization ; a spirit wrote out the contents of 
a letter after she had put it on her forehead. Spirits understand psy- 
chometry. 

15. A young man — a student of medicine : a highly excitable nervous 
temperament, and a fine biological subject. After trying to be a medi- 
um,^ by sitting with the pen, proposed that I should biologize him. I 
did so, and after a few sittings, he' took the pen, and the '• spmts" 
came at once ; he wrote freely ; and after three days' experiment he 
came to a settled conclusion that the communications were from his own 
mind. The images were old, new, and the two mixed together, com- 
bined without any reference to order or time. 

Another medium, of large brain — a nervous-lymphatic — was, after a 
few months' medium-ship, attacked with paralysis. It will not be denied 
that the identity of the individuals with all others of a magnetic charac- 
ter — some being mesmeric sleepers, others clairvoyants, others in the 
biological or impressible state, others cataleptic, others entranced, others 
with paralyzed limbs — raises a strong presumption in favor of the idea 
that these phenomena are among those mysterious things connected with 
this class of peculiarly organized individuals. The inference is a fair 
one, until shown to be false. 

It is among this very class of persons that Yon Reichenbach dem- 
onstrated a predominance of the od-force, and Buchanan his system of 
impressibility ; and while these Spirit-phenomena are always found most 
intense in the same connection, it will be well to investigate closely what 
magnetic persons may do, before rushing into the unseen world after in- 
tangible causes. Two magnets attract each other ; we infer the power 
of magnetic fluid from that fact. Two balls of iron, suspended from a 
hight by a cord, approach each other, the lines varying from the parallel 
— we infer thence that the balls attract each other. A magnetic person 
is attracted from his seat by the hand of another — we infer that both 
are powerfully magnetic from the fact. This same person, a medium, 
approaching a table, passes his hand over it, and after a a little the table 
moves, and the plain inference is that the person attracts or repels the 
table, as the case may be. 

In my next I will call attention to other physical symptoms. 

Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



REPLY TO DK. RICHMOND. 

LETTER IX. 

My Dear Friend : In the beginning of your letter you seem inclined 
to entertain the thought that my language is, at least occasionally, char- 
acterized by a spirit of unkindness,. and the observation that you " dis- 
like all personalities," seems to imply that I have been less scrupulous 
on this point than yourself. If I have given just cause for such a com- 
plaint it is my misfortune, of which, however, I am still unconscious. 
I beg you will consider our respective relations to the question and to 
each other. You occupy the affirmative position, and it is your prerog- 
ative to take your own way in the defense of the material theory ; but, 
so long as I am in the negative, I am not privileged to take an inde- 
pendent course. I must await my time until the form of the proposi- 
tion is changed and our relations to the question are reversed. Now, I 
respectfully inquire, what have I to do, agreeably to the acknowledged 
rules of discussion, but to follow you in a careful analysis of what you 
may be pleased to write .'' If the privilege of reviewing your premises 
and conclusions is denied me, then, manifestly, the negative can bear 
no part in the controversy. And yet, the facts and arguments on both 
sides, it appears to me, should be subjected to a severe ordeal ; this is 
necessary to enable us to distinguish between truth and error. In dis- 
cussing the relations of the present question, to the established principles 
of physical science, it is obviously my privilege and my duty, as one 
who accredits the claims of the Spiritual theory, to show, if that be pos- 
sible, wherein your explanations infringe the known laws of physics. 
Now permit me to say, in all sincerity, that I deem the spirit of your 
letters worthy of imitation, and while I bear witness to the uniform kind- 
ness nianifested by yourself, during this correspondence, I trust that my 
friend will do me the justice not to confound a playful criticism or logi- 
cal analysis with personal ill feeling. While I presume that our respect 
for each other, and for our readers, will always be appropriately mani- 
fested, I venture to hope that the sentiments of personal friendship and 
cordiality will not be permitted to dilute the elements, or impair the 
force of the present controversy. These sentiments, I doubt not, are 



110 A DISCUSSION. 

mutually entertained, and should not he diminislied by such a measure 
of freedom as our deepest convictions may sanction or the truth demand. 

I need not occupy time and space with matters already disposed of, 
and, therefore, very cheerfully accord to you the privilege of the last 
remarks, concerning the acceptance of the proposition now under dis- 
cussion. For similar reasons I leave the reader to decide whether the 
Spirit-writings through Mr. Fowler — introduced, be it remembered, by 
Dr. Richmond — contribute to establish the affirmative of the question 
in its present form. I will, however, furnish a specimen of Mr. Fow- 
ler's chu'ography if it can be of any possible service in your present 
labors. 

You affirm that " all poisons make a deep impression on the senso- 
rium," producing " various mental and physical symptoms," and thence 
conclude that all media are under the influence of the od-force ! You 
will pardon me if I am unable to perceive the remotest possible connec- 
tion between the premises and the conclusion. Moreover, I did ask to 
be informed with respect to the peculiar rule of logic, according to which 
you infer that all the media are in an abnormal state, and the following 
answer by my correspondent is singular enough : " Two of my little 
boys are very impressible, I look one in the eye and say to him, ' You 
are going to whirl your hands ;' he does so with violence till I say ' all 
right' &c." Now if this answer involves any rule of logic, it is more 
than probable that its wonderful subtilty or my extreme obtuseness will 
render it forever imperceptible. Grrant that your little boy is " very 
impressible ;" I am willing to accept the fact without further evidence ; 
but when you ask me to infer from this circumstance that the media for 
Spiritual Manifestations, are without exception, in an abnormal condi- 
tion, I am left to look in vain for that rule of logic, and must beg leave 
to be excused if I fail to accomplish the leap. The facts and your de- 
duction may be concisely stated thus : ' My son is highly susceptible 
to my influence ; he whirls his hands involuntarily, whenever I tell him 
to do so, and until he hears his father say, " All right ;" therefore all 
media for the Spiritual phenomena, of whatever nature or class, are in 
an abnormal state.' It will be perceived that the conclusion sustains 
no possible relation to the antecedent propositions. 

But I am reminded that the word normal^ as employed in this connec- 
tion, signifies — to use the precise definition of Webster — " According to 
an established laio, rule or principle.'''' 'You are going to hold me to 
this point.' Very well ; I will try to hold still. Now you at once infer 
that Miss Middlebrook is in an " ahiormal state, from the fact that ordi- 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. Ill 

nary persons don't have such sounds about them " But this is sheer 
evasion. The question to he settled is not whether all persons, or 
" ordinarif persons^'''' are accompanied by the sounds, but do the mani- 
festations occur " according to an estahllshed law^ rule, or principle ?" Dr. 
Richmond most certainly contends that they do, and has labored even 
from the commencement of this discussion, to prove that they all depend 
on the ' established laws ' of imponderable fluids, or the ' principles ' of 
electricity, magnetism and the od-force. If my friend's position be cor- 
rect — if the manitestations are regulated by the undeviating laws of 
physical nature, as much as gravitation, chemical affinity, the expansion 
of bodies by heat, and the attraction of the magnet, then, manifestly, as 
normal means agreeably to law, the fact is proved — Dr. Richmond being 
the principal witness — that the media may be in a strictly normal con- 
dition. The fact that " ordinary persons don't have such sounds, etc." 
presents no valid objection to the conclusion. It is well known that 
" ordinary persons " are not philosophers, mathematicians, poets, paint- 
ers or musicians, but philosophy has to do with laws, the exact sciences 
are subject to inflexible rules, and poetry, painting, and harmonics are 
governed by established principles. I conclude, therefore, that even 
Plato, Archimedes, Shakspeare, Michael Angelo and Mozart, may have 
been, for the most part, in a perfectly normal condition, since it does not 
follow, necessarily, that persons who possess extraordinary powers, gifts, 
capacities and susceptibilities, are in an abnormal state, so long as their 
peculiar attributes and functions are regulated by law. 

You tacitly acknowledge all that I particularly desired to prove by 
my remarks — published in my sixth letter — concerning the nature of 
trance. You had previously assumed that ' the most marvelous mag- 
netic phenomena ever witnessed are among persons who appear perfect- 
ly normal.'' I denied the assumption, and instanced trance as one of 
the most marvelous of the magnetic states, observing at the same time 
that, the subject of trance, so far from appearing "perfectly normal," 
frequently appears to be dead. Now I am very well assured that nei- 
ther my correspondent, nor any other intelligent observer, will attempt 
to dispute this point. Every case of trance plainly disproves the assump- 
tion that the most wonderful of the magnetic states is characterized by 
normal symptoms. This is all I designed to establish by my former 
remarks. Whether the spirit absolutely leaves the body, during the 
continuance of the state, is not the point involved; however, the proba- 
bilities of the case will more clearly appear when I come to present the 
evidence under this head. 



112 A DISCUSSION. 

You insist that Mr. Hume was — in the scene of the maniac described 
in a former letter — entranced by me, and you seize on the fact that I 
had spent some forty minutes in an effort to magnetize H., to sustain 
you ; but the fact is plainly subversive of your hypothesis. Will you 
bear in mind that it was on a previous occasion that I tried to entrance 
Mr. Hume, and also that I tried in vain. Nothing, in my humble opin- 
ion, can be more unphilosophical than your manner of disposing of this 
case. You at once presio7)ie that, although I had utterly failed to make 
any sensible impression on H., at the time of the trial, yet some days or 
weeks after, and without any effort of mine, he was suddenly and deeply 
entranced — because he was previously charged with the od force of my own 
body! Did this wonderful agent which, according to Dr. Richmond, 
moves " about 200,000 time as fast as air," require several days to 
" float over the nervous system " of Mr. Hume, so as to " impress him 
with its peculiar force .^" Can anything be more preposterous ! I am 
sure the Baron's od-force never did appear so extremely odd as it does 
just now, and in the service of my friend. It causes bodies to be at- 
tracted and repulsed, elevated or cast down, with equal facility ; inani- 
mate objects become animated and walk off ; they dance to music ; they 
take aerial excursions, and perform an endless variety of the most fan- 
tastic tricks, in which they violate all the known laws of imponderable 
agents and astonish every body. Did any force ever act so before ! It 
is certainly not surprising that the clergy and the press are alarmed, 
and that able writers are excited to opposition, now that Od force preach- 
es on Sunday, edits newspapers and threatens to ruin the whole business of 
a^tthorship ! Seriously, when you attempt to refer such wonders to the 
od-force, will you not consent to treat the subject in a more scientific 
manner, and not insist that the mere repetition of those cabalistic words 
furnishes a solution for all mysteries. Words are not always revela- 
tions ; sometimes they even obscure the divinest thoughts, or they may 
dimly shadow forth. 

" combinations of disjointed things, 

And forms, impalpable and unperceived 
By others." 
That dreams may be inspired by sensation and a previous association 
of ideas, is proved by a great number of illustrations. Grregory's dream, 
cited in your last letter, presents an example of this class. But a dream 
which can be directly traced to an adequate cause, proves nothing with 
respect to the innumerable facts which admit of no such reference. 
This case will not enable us to account for all, or for any one class, of 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 113 

the Manifestations, any more than it proves that all dreams are directly 
inspired by 'Mt. Vesuvius ' or 'a jug of hot water ' ! The other dreams, 
referred to in your letter, amount to no more. 

In my psychological experiments I have often made impressions on 
the minds of others, without direct physical contact, and, in some in- 
stances, when they were at a distance. The fact quoted from the She- 
KiNAH comprehends the result of one of these experiments. But it 
should be remembered that these were persons with whom I had pre- 
viously been en rafport^ and that no trial of a similar kind was ever at- 
tended with success, txafpt there, was a powerful concentration of mind 07i 
the object and a determined exercise of the will. In all such cases, there- 
fore, the relations of cause and effect are plainly distinguishable. The 
results of my own experiments have often filled me with astonishment, 
but they wholly differ in their nature, and in the circumstances of their 
occurrence, from the more important facts usually ascribed to the agen- 
cy of spirits. The deliberate announcement that you are " going to 
try to slide all " the essential facts through " this loophole " does not 
strike me as particularly remarkable — it will be very extraordinary, 
however, if you succeed. 

Your mode of accounting for what occurred to Henry Gordon, while 
in a room with Mr. Partridge, is not quite as clear as demonstration. 
To solve the problem of Henry's aerial journey " around the room " 
you say, " The unconscious will-force seems greater than ordinary voli- 
tion." This reminds me of the claims of certain theologians, who are 
accustomed to make an important distinction between the revealed and 
" the secret will of Grod," both of which they profess to understand. 
Will you inform me how you came to be conscious of the existence of 
that " unconscious will-force " of which no one has a consciousness I 
Your explanation continues thus: "His body, charged with the od- 
force, performed this feat partly by gravitation and partly by will- 
power." But allow me to remind you that the human body, by virtue 
of a law that acts irresistibly on all ponderable bodies, could only gravi- 
tate toivard the center of the earth. Now as Henry, agreeably to the 
statement — and this is not a solitary example — moved in the opposite 
direction, from the earth'' s center., it is obvious that gravitation had noth- 
ing to do with the result ; but the fact is the revelation of a power com- 
pared with which ordinary physical forces, mighty as they really are, 
are nevertheless inferior. Moreover, to affirm that a phenomenon of 
this nature, and withal so extraordinary as to be deemed utterly incred- 
ible by the mass of men, was accomplished by a simple act of the will,. 



114 A DISCUSSION. 

is about as rational, at the present stage of human Spiritualization, as to 
say that a man may lift himself by his shirt collar ! 

You next present a brief analysis of the temperaments of some twen- 
ty media, not one of whom, so far as we are able to learn from your 
statement, has any name or residence. I presume they are all verita- 
ble cases, but we have no means of finding any one of them, unless my 
friend or the od-force shall be pleased to disclose their whereabouts. 
The object of this analysis of temperamental conditions seems to be, to 
show that the media, male and female, are generally restless mortals, 
subject to nervous excitements and hysteria. The cases appear to have 
been selected for a particular purpose. Suppose I make a selection ; I 
will give the names and residences too, as far as possible : 

Rev. Charles Hammond, Rochester, N. Y., a gentleman of ener- 
getic mind and strong executive powers — was never affected mesmeri- 
cally, or otherwise by any magnetic or psychological process — will 
give my correspondent, or any respectable biologist, an opportunity to 
make a longer or shorter trial as may best accord with the convenience 
of the operator. The right hand of Mr. Hammond has written several 
interesting books, that are now having an extensive sale, in the origina- 
tion of which, further than is here indicated, he has had no personal, 
voluntary or conscious agency, 

Andrev^t Jackson Davis, now of Hartford, Conn., has been a Seer 
and Spiritual medium from his early youth. He possesses a firm nerv- 
ous-billious temperament, a sound constitution, and was never troubled 
with nervous diseases. Mr. D. is characterized by great calmness of 
feeling, manner and speech, is a philosopher by nature, and is subject 
to frequent influx from the Spiritual World, the spirits not unfrequently 
presenting themselves in visible form before him. 

Mr. Daniel Gtates, Worcester, Mass., is a man of sterling common 
sense and incorruptible integrity — weighs nearly two hundred pounds — 
enjoys good health — is distinguished for correct habits, and a calmness 
of mind and temper that is seldom or never ruffled. Mr. Grates has been 
a medium for some months. 

Mr. Barnes — said to have intercourse with spirits — resides in New- 
Haven, Conn., is frequently in Bridgeport, New-York and elsewhere, 
acting in the capacity of medium — weighs, I should think, not far from 
two hundred and thirty pounds — is of a strong billious-lymphatic temper- 
ament, has a good appetite, rests well and was never known to be 
itroubled with hysteria. 

I can easily extend the number to twenty if it is required — without 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 115 

suppressing names or localities — but the above may suffice to show that, 
the media are not all of the class described by my correspondent. It is 
true that a large number of persons susceptible to spiritual injauence, 
have nervous temperaments and are delicately organized ; but it is not 
true that their nervous systems are generally shattered, or that they are 
otherwise diseased. If the nervous or mental temperament is usually 
predominant in the media, the fact rather favors the spiritual theory, 
since persons of this class are more ethereal in their natures, and, of con- 
sequence, other conditions being favorable,, are more likely to be ap- 
proached by spirits. 

As to " rushing into the unseen world after intangible causes," I 
need only say that, while I can not conceive of ultimate or real causes as 
existing anywhere but ia " the unseen world " I still propose to proceed, 
in searching after them, with the greatest coolness and deliberation. 

With assurances of personal friendship, and believing that the alleged 
intercourse between spirits and men is a solemn and sublime reality, 
I am yours sincerely, S. B. BRITTAN, 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA-TEMPERAMENTS OF MEDIA. 

DR B. W. RICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

LETTER X. 

Dear Sir : In your reply to my seventh letter you still seemed to be 
haunted with that " question " — its ghost won't down at your bidding. 
Edward seems also to run in your imagination, and you seem to think 
that I have treated him as badly as the spirits did when they caught 
him in the garret, paralyzed his legs, and told him to be quiet, he should 
not be hurt. I would not hang my dog, or the ghost of Kern's dog, on 
such testimony. You give it to Dr. Hibbert good ; he got his stone 
too broad, you think, and I suggest that his measurement was " inci- 
dental^'''' or by " special direction^'''' or possibly he did it " while Kossuth's 
mission " was under discussion — either of which would have been suffi- 
cient to have made a difference of seven feet. Possibly the difference 
was occasioned by the " examination of Hehrew and Sanscrit^'" which, 
combining with Daniel's excitement about the lion's den, producing sul- 
sultus, or " zig-zag,'''' as Mr. Bush calls it, suddenly moved Hibbert's 
hand. Other places seem worse afflicted with eleciricity than the Shet- 
land Isles ; men seem to be worse disfigured than the rock. The pal- 
pable hlunders made by some of the celestial signers may have occurred 
in the same way, and I was about to inquire of friend Fowler, but as he 
was ont at the time, his testimony would not be relevant. 

Heat and cold seem still to trouble you — and for your consolation I 
remark that frceziiig has been used in various countries in Europe to 
split rocks., for centuries. A wedge passed into a drill or crevice in the 
rock, and, saturated with water, was left till heat was abstracted to a 
certain point, and the sudden expansion split the rock ; but the academ- 
ics of Florence thought it all "(75.stt'w,ecZ." and so went about de'monst rating 
of it. The Swedes, for centuries, had used the above method of split- 
ting out grind-stones. Now, friend Brittan, don't turn round and say 
that I attribute the " phenomena " to grind-stone splitting, because I 
have " incidentally " mentioned it, as I did " lunacy and groging." Did 
you seriously think that " mind " grumbling in the bowels of the earth 
causes earthquakes — or that I quoted the electric eel in proof of " reve- 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 117 

latlon and miracles ?" Heat is a sensation produced by motion in mat- 
ter — cold is a term implying a condition of matter having less heat than 
some other condition of matter. I have a new lexicon — and you shall 
have it when you send that " hand writng " I spoke of. Philosophers 
who attempt to show that heat or cold is matter have always failed. 
Swedenborg says that the inmost of God is Zot'e— and love answers to 
heat — so that the soul of all organized life is divine heat ; that a prin- 
ciple analogous to thisjdead heat, pervades all dead matter, causing grav- 
itation ; so that on your definition that heat is matter, you would make 
heat the cause of all motion. 

I am profoundly surprised at the opening of your eighth reply. You 
attempt to moh me doion by authority. " Professors in colleges and men 
of distinguished scientific attainments," are said to disbelieve in the 
" rappings," and aver that the laws of matter are incompetent to pro- 
duce them. Professors of science and theology all agreed that Gralilleo 
was a fanatic, a heretic, and that the laws of matter could not produce 
the motions he attributed to the earth and other planets. The Bible, 
revelation, and reason, all showed him wrong, but " still it moves," says 
the philosopher. Professors don't know everything, and, of all men, 
they are least competent to judge in this case. Not one in ten thousand 
of them have given a candid investigation to Phrenology, Mesmerism, 
Psychology, Dynamics of Mesmerism, or Smee's experiments. I know 
that almost all theologians, professors, and doctors, regard the rappings 
as a hambug ; and, of all men, professors and doctors are the most big- 
otted and stupid. Gralen's opinions ruled the whole tribe a thousand 
years — every improvement in medicine has been the work of some rebel 
like your man of the Scalpel. Harvey lost both his good name and 
practice for teaching the circulaton of the blood ; the whole profession 
hunted him as they would a wild beast. I saw it stated the other day 
that " twenty members of Congress " had pronounced in favor of the 
Spirit theory, and yet there is scarcely a scientific mind in that grand 
manazuree. Morse was years begging for aid to start the telegraph, and 
finally got dimes enough to go to Baltimore. Professors, doctors, 
D. D.'s, or M. D.'s, Judges nor Congressmen shall control me by author- 
ity ; they are men, but as a mass, wholly unfitted by their selfish habits, 
their gross want of science and independent candor — to investigate 
either spirits or humbugs. Physically, you have well observed, men 
have always been the same. Agents act on every man alike under like 
circumstances — eels nor ghosts form no exception. 

Your giant story is instructive, but so much steel glittering like moon- 



118 A DISCUSSION. 

light among thistle-blows would destroy the od-loree. This is " as- 
sumed," I admit. You are evidently unwilling, or some " more vital 
defect " prevents your meeting the physical phenomena and facts I have 
presented. You say that " mediums are, with occasional exceptions, 
electrically negative," " delicately organized — a large proportion little 
children." To this I agree ; but when you assume that in strong per- 
sons a larger amount of vital electricity is elaborated than in the others, I 
demand the proof. This shows a " vital defect " in your observations. 
You say I am " indefinite." Names and localities are not given, I 
admit, and for the reason that I got gloriously abused last winter for 
even allusions — and slander, and venom, and meanness was resorted to 
the moment I attempted to question the authority of the spirits. 

The " air of fiction," you speak of, raises a personality to which I do 
not object. I will get certified, if you demand it. Let me see — I will 
afiirm that the stories are not fiction — and get professor L.L. D. to say 
that a man who writes for the Telegraph would not be likely to be 
writing '■'■fiction ;" then I will get '' Lucy Long " to certify that I am a 
clever fellow, and divers others (and they are numerous) to affirm their 
favorable impressions of my personality — and that I did not in their 
opinion write certain names or fictions on papers left " iacidentally " and 
by "direction " on my table — and that 1 probably was not imposed upon 
while " ouf'' or " asleep,'''' and certain other " invisibles," (to all but 
myself,) to say they wrote the " fictions " by the aid of the " battery," 
and the reason why the names or fictions look so mick alike was the tre- 
mendous sympathy which the " invisibles " have with each other ; that 
they made the letters all alike because they rather love to be alike — 
" birds of a feather flock together " — and then, to wind ofi", I afiirmthat 
I was normal, could hear bells, and ding-dong and clatter — only my legs 
were so stiff with magnetism from the celestials that I could not get down 
stairs, and I had to see them wind lightnmg around a pen and write 
steadily only when the " oriental costumes " (see Shekinah) got in the 
way. Kern's " ghost dog " was right-end first, of course, if the spirit 
psycholigized him. But why did not your benevolent ghost go to the 
barn, crawl through the key-hole, and make such a racket as to call aid 
to poor boss. More on this point when I come to ghosts. A skeleton 
was found in the castle after its destruction ; it was no doubt a murdered 
peddler — they are always bm'ied in the cellar. Mark, all these phenom- 
ena disappeared when Kern left. (See SeeJierin, by Kerner.) 

The " pumping " medium wears the name of Warren — a lad twelve 
years old — raps, pumps, and " throws corn ;" gross in his manners and 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 119 

mind; vfonld, naturally, you see, attract "Hog Devil." This spirit 
gives various accounts of himself : His "hog ship is sometimes a jpirate- 
spirit, and at others the devil whom Christ cast out of the lunatic, and 
who went into the hogs — who, you recollect, (see New Testament,) ran 
down into the sea and were choked. I incline to the latter opinion, 
which accounts for his special spite toward the corn — he remembered 
how much corn he lost by getting drowned in the swine. Reichenbach 
don't cover this case. His majesty has written for the ladies in Jeffer- 
son. In Andover, this County, he was anxious, on a time, to show 
what sphere he came from, and wrote out " Hog- tail sphere ;" and when 
asked for a communication, to comfort ]i\s, friends on earth, (the hogs, I 
presume,) he gave them, " Glory he to my long-tailed fig'''' — the one 
doubtless into which he personally went. He will appear in your circles, 
probably, as he had the habit here of seizing the pen whenever any oth- 
er spirit stopped writing. When he wrote for ladies he was quite a 
gentleman ; when among brutish boys, he talked as boys do. He has 
often written at D. Cadwell's, in this place. Call him up, friends, he 
will " own the corn " — and you can "verify the truth of history." 
The pumping occurred at Mr. Eben Mills', in Austinburg, this County. 
The water flowed " continuously,^'' and the handle was moved hj juts of 
od-force. Ask his hog-ship whether we can pump by " sunshine." 

Can the " od-force converse " or " write its name " 2 are questions 
that indicate how incompetent men are to keep cause and effect con- 
nected in the mind. The most conceited can talk loudly of " cause and 
effect," but the wUfuUy blind can never see them. Reichenbach dem- 
onstrates that the od-force is largely evolved in digestion — of course it 
is — for it is the " vital electricity " of which you talk so learnedly, and 
no one can converse without its aid or move a muscle. It is under the 
control of mind ; the will sends it over the lungs, and we speak — to the 
hand, and we write. Do you really think now that I have spoken of 
od-force as an intelligence, or only as an agent of intelligence ? Can od- 
force write its name ?" — " Can electric eels account for revelation and 
miracles.?" Possibly, if they should attend circles. 

The " remarkable phenomena, in a lady's sleeping-room," seem to 
surprise you. The gun was passed through one room, over or under 
one bed ; human hands are not known to have touched the gun. How 
did your spirit get it ? Did she handle it, bring it in, as a person 
would ? It seems that she did not handle the " tumbler and bottle " — 
non-conductors — for fear of breaking them. 

What was " Ann " — as she called herself — smelling around among- 



120 A DISCUSSION. 

the old cartridge-boxes for ? She pulled out the ram-rod, and meant 
to shoot them unless they buried her. The bureau moved toward the 
medium as she passed it, the chair was thrown from her — attraction and 
repulsion — the table and chairs moved into the Ihie through which she 
'passed. This last occurrence can not be explained but by vacuum and 
attraction of the medium. Try it with your spirit theory. The straw 
drawn from the led, and the pillow-throwing, occurred when the medium 
was abed. When articles were thrown /rom the medium, it was toward 
those persons who were frightened. 

How the spirit pulled the straw from the bed .? By presenting her 
celestial finger to the north pole of an oat straw and drawing it through 
a small hole ; or, she may have crawled into the straw bed and kicked 
it out. What a proud triumph for spirits ! See her flourish aloft a 
wisp of straw, and call on men to believe. For these facts, address 
Lucius Austin, Austinburgh, Ash County, or Lysander Cowles, do. 
The loiling of the hones occurred in Marlborough, Ohio. The sounds, 
while it was going on, were far louder than ever hefore ; the medium was 
sorely frightened ; the bureau moved up to the kettle, and knives, forks, 
and other articles, were attracted into the kettle. Put this with Rei- 
chenbach's observation on the grave where a body was recently buried 
"with quick-lime — where the od-force was rapid and abundant in its evo- 
lution and ceased when the lime and body was removed. This sug- 
gested the " dry bones " body in the castle ; of that we can know noth- 
ing definite. I mentioned it to call your attention to similar phenom- 
ena. The action of lime tvater, in producing cholera, here finds its ex- 
planation. Of that by and by. Take the burials about St. Paul's, 
envelop the bodies in quick-lime — or boil them in a vast cauldron — with 
strong lye., and make the conditions parallel with those I give, deal can- 
didly with such facts, and then see what happens. I know there are 
two or three versions of this story. I have given the best version I could 
get. I have asked for all the facts., but could not get them. Dr. K. 
Gr. Thomas, Marlborough, Ohio, can give you light, if he will. The 
medium objects to her name being given I have promised not to give 
it — I respect her feelings too much. I am a martyr, and will be sawed 
asunder .1 and lose the buttons from my vest before breaking my word. 
These facts — the skeleton — skull — gun — straw — ghost — and all — were 
detailed to Mr. Greeley, when in Jefi'erson, this summer, at Senator 
Wade's. Consult him, Lucius M. Austin, and Lysander Cowles, and 
then give us the " fiction." 

You indicate in a note that the ghost of a divine told you that when 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 121 

a fellow gets killed he can come back easier^ and make more noise and 
demonstrations. Dying a natural death seems to rather^a^ us out. 

Von Reichenbacli shows the identity of the od-force and the agent of 
human magnetism ; all admit that will acts in mesmerizing. Here we 
have mind controlling the fluid. The eels show the same fact. The 
action of magnets shows the power of this od-force to move matter 
without will. The experiments of Dr. Kerner and Dr. Buchanan show 
that will controls it. All sensitive, mesmeric and sickly cataleptics 
have it, in abundance. Mediums are just this class of persons ; the 
force is transmissible to all matter ; it permeates and surrounds all mat- 
ter, living and dead. When the mediums approach physical objects, 
they move, are attracted, repelled, dance, jump, turn over. When 
the medium is gone, they cease. The chain you can not break ; dust 
you may throw ; talk about " marrying the facts;" " do eels explain 
revelations.'"' "can od-force write his name .^" Mind can use od- 
force to write names or move tables. 

You observe that " vital electricity was as much a constituent ele- 
ment in all men, in every age, as now, in those called mediums." It 
varies, of course, in degree, in all ; and in the sensitive and sickly it 
shows new symptoms. Let us inquire in this direction, and see what 
we. find. Spasms, catalepsy, clairvoyance, second sight, speaking and 
dreaming, we now see. 

A lady of an excitable make, who had written some, had been seeing 
another medium write ; her arm being much afflicted, flew about and 
grasped involuntarily the pen, candle or clothes. On returning home, 
she was showing her friends how the girl acted, and the candlestick was 
held tight in her hand and flew about in various directions, and finally 
ceased. In a short time she began to twitch in her arms ; her fingers 
curled into the palm of the hand ; her arms felt heavy and paralyzed, 
trembled, and one pointed up into the air, the other down. She kept 
her hands constantly in motion, laughed, jumped at the girls ; her eyes 
looked wild, and her hands seized whatever she could reach. She had 
caught it. I procured pen and ink, and seated her at the table. She 
first dashed off an image of a man in Turkish trowsers and English cue. 
I asked the spirit his name ; she wrote, Sam Smith, and divers other 
matters followed. I took her to an adjoining house and her spasms in- 
creased. Her head rolled round on one side., hy a kind of rotary motion ; 
her arms grew cold and stiff; her hands drew back ; her head, also her 
ower extremities, moved back to meet them, and in this state of agony 
she rolled from the chair on to the floor — head and heels up. Her 



122 A DISCUSSION. 

whole body was rigid, and any attempt to relieve her increased the pain. 
She was perfectly herself, like other mediums, laughed and groaned al- 
ternately. She thought the devil was in her. On oifeiing her medi- 
cine, she spit it into my face ; still she begged for it, and, when I ap- 
proached, she shut her mouth involuntarily. Finally, by pressing against 
the throat, I got her to swallow a weak solution of emetic tartar. She 
soon became sick at the stomach, and the devil and Sam Smith left for 
the night. In the morning, the spirits and spasms returned. This 
time I gave them lobelia ; this offended them so much they have not 
returned since. The whole thing came pretty near to spiritual hysteria. 
It is a nervous disease, variously developed in different persons. 

The above case depended on physical causes^ and emetic tartar re- 
moved it. Emetic tartar will arrest the phenomena of any medium in 
a short time. 

The following case occurred in Bloomfield, Ohio, and was published 
in the Warren Transcript. A Mr. Belden was mesmerized by a spirit 
called "Emma." 

" She was, when alive, considered a powerful mesmerizer. After further ques- 
tioning, it was found that she would give directions in ten minutes, through Mr. 
Eastom. On watching the medium closely, we saw that he was fast going into 
the mesmeric state. The eyes closed slowly, and the lips moved as if articulat- 
ing, though inaudibly. When the ten minutes had expired, what we readily 
recognized as a female voice spoke through him, as follows : 

" ' James is magnetized. I have magnetized him for the pui'pose of an inter- 
preter. I will magnetize Ansil (Belden) in ten minutes. 

" ' Ansil is to sleep till 9 o'clock. It is necessary the house be very still, as his 
lungs are so affected that he can not speak very loud. You will have to listen 
attentively.' ******** 

" After the spirit had ceased speaking through Mr. E., the second medium, 
Mr. B., who was thoroughly magnetized, was suddenly seized with terrible 
spasms and convulsions, yiolent jerkings of the head from one side to the other, 
and other indications, proving that the nervo-electric fluid was disturbed from 
some unknown cause. The friends of Mr. B. became much alarmed, and ques- 
tioned the spirit through Mr. Eastom as to the cause and what should be done. 
The answer was, that there was too much noise in the room, and that a glass of 
water should be given him ; which being done, he assumed his former composure 
— the lips began to move, and after some eifort, what follows was spoken, the 
mediums having previously been moved from their position at table to the door 
near another room, so that all in both rooms might have an opportunity of 
hearing : 

" ' I, Emma, wish to converse with my friends, but must again request that 
the house be still, as Ansil's lungs are weaker than usual. Further directions 
I will make known through James (Eastom.) I wish to talk to mother, brother 
and sister. I should be happy to address my other friends, but time will not 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 123 

permit. I am happy that you have taken the trouble to come here, am also glad 
to see Esther,' (a lady who had never before been present there,) ' and hope she 
may be benefitted. I have tried to converse with her at other times, but have 
been defeated Mother, I wish to say to you, be diligent, search the Scriptures, 
for in them are the words of Eternal Life. I am happy that through Christ you 
have put away your sins. There is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that 
repenteth than ninety and nine that need no repentance. * * * * 

* * Beware ! beware of th.Q first, secoiid, third and fourth spheres, 
for they areplaces of misery. Those who are superstitious, wilful, and secta- 
rain to bigotry, will inherit these spheres. Trust in God — rely on His word — 
keep his commandments — be truly banevolent.' " 

Another specimen of these symptoms is found in a meeting of medi- 
ums in Massachusetts, published in the Springfield Republican. The 
writer says : 

" When we entered the hall, the meeting had not commenced, and all parties 
were engaged in a lively chat. Soon there was a spontaneous coming to order, 
and the ladies formed into a circle around a table. The gentlemen then formtd 
a larger circle, entirely surrounding the ladies. A good hymn was given out 
and sung. During the singing, we noticed one lady growing excessively j?a/e 
and cadaverous. Then her hands began to twitch, and she commenced ^JOWMtf- 
ing upon the table. Directly opposite her, a young woman was undergoing the 
process of being magnetized by the spirits, while she, as we were informed, was 
resisting them. Her hands were drawn under the table by sudde?i atid power- 
ful Jerks, and every muscle in her body seemed to be agitated with the most 
powerful commotion, as if she were acted upon in every part by shocks of elec- 
tricity. This continued for ten or fifteen minutes, until she was, at last, in a 
state apparently resembling the magnetic sleep. 

"Another lady, with a fine eye and an intellectual cast of countenance, was 
then moved to write, which she did, while her eyes stared and rolled as if in a 
state oi frenzy, and every muscle seemed strained to its utmost tension. She 
wrote absolutely furiously, but no one but the spirits could read it, and it was 
passed over to another medium, who announced it a message of such utter unim- 
portance that we have forgotten it. A brawny blacksmith was among the medi- 
ums, but he did nothing hut pound on the table, and write the word ' sing.' The 
famous medium, Gordon, was there, too, and he went through various contor- 
tions — got down upon his knees, stood upon his seat, stretched up his arms 
and fingers, trembling all the while, as if in the highest state of nervous ex- 
citement. Once he was twitched bodily under the table, uttering a scream as 
he went. At times, the different mediums would rise, spread their arms, slap 
the table, and throw their hands i7ito motions almost inco7iceivably rapid. 

" One of the mediums, a young woman, arose by the dictation and powerful 
urging of the spirits, and delivered a rambling sermon. It abounded in quota- 
tions from the Bible, and the doctrines of Universalism. We presume to say that 
it was the poorest sermon of the season. 

" But it was when the singing was in progress that the spirits and the medi- 
ums were in the highest ecstacy. Then the latter would pound, throw their arms 
around, and point upward in the most fantastic manner possible. And thus, 



124 A DISCUSSION. 

•with singing, and pounding, and reading the Bible, and writing, and preaching, 
the evening passed away ; and while ' Old Hundred,' was being sung, the spirits 
gave their good -night to the circle." 

I find the following in the Plain Dealer : 

•' Just before opening the meeting the piano was played, the medium beating 
time, and some ladies present sung 'Ben Bolt.' We should think about thirty 
mediums were present, most of them very much excited, and making most extrav- 
agant physical demonstrations, their nervous systems apparently stretched to 
their utmost capacity. 

" The mediums, by order of the spirits, at this crisis, called for some lively 
music, and the tune of ' Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm ' was sung 
with great effect, the mediums testifying their gratification by violently beating 
time, and getting quite excited, as the music waxed livelier and louder. This 
scJng was followed — more music being called for — by the Missionary Hymn, 
' From Greenland's Icy Mountains.' 

" A male medium then arose, and in the most vociferous manner, with the 
most violent physical demonstrations, emitted a quantity of untelligible jargon, 
similar to the Mormon gift of the tongues. It is said that this medium speaks 
the Indian language when under the iniiuence of spirits, though when in his nat- 
ural state he knows nothing of it. Some of the mediums present seemed to un- 
derstand him however, rapping at times quite vigorously." 

T find the following in the Cleveland Herald : 

" On consultation, it was resolved to bring the mediums together on the plat- 
form. This was done to the number of forty or fifty, about a third males. The 
mediums were o/a/Z ages, from children of twelve to old men of sixty. They 
were seated in a circle on the platform, Dr. Underhill standing in the center as 
manager. Spiritualists were admitted to the hall, the unrecognized being sub- 
ject to the test of a clairvoyant at the door. The exercises again commenced with 
music, and the vibratory manifestations as well as rappings were more general 
and violent than when the mediums were scattered among the congregation. 
Still the right kind of harmony was lacking. * * * The spirits commu- 
nicated that more lively music would be agreeable, and Mr. Tiffany invited the 
ladies to come forward and play and sing. He suggested ' Three Grains of corn ' 
as the spirits' air for the piano, and the ' Old Granite State ' was also played and 
sung. Kappings and vibratory manifestations were frequent, some of the male 
and female mediums being exercised much after the manner of the Jerkings of the 
revvialists in Kentucky many years ago, and the early Mormons of modern 
times. * * * More music was resorted to, and ' Vote yourself a Farm ' 
was sung. Dr. Underhill spoke a few moments with much earnestness, and the 
demonstrations also considerably i^icreased in power. A white-haired gentle- 
. man rose and exhorted a few moments, at the same time jerki7ig and twitching 
all over. A young man who had been violently exercised by Jerkitig spasms, 
rose and ran on for some moments in a sort of Indian Jargon, precisely as the 
Mormons were affected when they supposed the Indians were the lost tribes, and 
that they had received the gift of tongues for the purpose of gathering them to 
the promised land. The spirit of Black Hawk had probably returned to Cuya- 
hoga to ' vindicate the truth of history.' * * * In Rochester, he, with 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 125 

others, had an interview with Benjamin Franldin, through the •well-known Miss 
Margaret Fox. An answer from Franklin was rapped up by means of the alpha- 
bet, and when read by the medium was pronounced ungrammatical by a gentle- 
man at the table. A second time it was rapped out by the spirit, and again pro- 
nounced ungrammatical. Miss Fox immediately left the table indignantly, with 
the emphatic remark, ' You all know that I don't understand grammar !' " 

These jerkings, aud cramps, and head-rolling, don't occur in all, but 
will among the most sensitive, if the excitement is great. 

Let us now glance at this state as seen among the Jerkers of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, and in Austinburgh, Ohio. In Howe's History 
of Ohio, page 46, we find the following : " It was called the Jerks and 
first seen in Teen, at the sacrament. The subject was seized with 
spasms, convulsions in every muscle and tendon. His head tvas thrown 
from side to side with such rapidity that his visage was. not discernible, 
and fears seized the beholder lest he should dislocate his neck or dash 
out his brains — (as in New-England witchcraft the bone seemed dis- 
solved.) His body partook of the same impulses, and by jerks was 
hurried on over benches, trunks of trees, &c." Attempts to restrain 
them were useless, and the paroxysm gradually exhausted itself. To 
resist was thought to be resisting the Spirit of God. " The first form 
of the spasms was a jerking and violent agitation of the hand and arm. 
From the elbow downward the jerk was short, quick, and at intervals. 
It extended to the body, and when the neck was afi"ected the head was 
thrown backward and forward with a celerity frightful to behold." (See 
Tarmington medium and also the Cleveland mediums.) " The bosom 
heaved and the countenance was distorted. * * * ^yYiq hair, 
in the movements of the head, snapped like a whip, and had to be cut 
off. The hack was affected and the patient fell down on the ground and 
moved like a fish. Their actions resembled persons goaded with hot 
iron. The head rolled from side to side and forward and back with a 
quick jej-k. The subject could not stay himself, but would sometimes 
dash on the ground and hound from place to place like a ball," (gravita- 
tion overcome, the body charged with the nervo-electric fluid,) " or 
hop round with head, limhs and trunk twitching in every direction. The 
head would jerk right and left and half round, and the face seemed as 
much behind as before, and the person looked like another creature. 
The females tied their hair with handkerchiefs, but the first jerk threw 
them off. These jerks were involuntary, and the person exerted in vain 
his will to control them. They had harking, rolling, running, and 
dancing exercises — also visions a,nd trances.''^ 

Dr. Watson, of London, alludes to a disease like the above that ap- 



126 A DISCUSSION. 

peared in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Drs. Barton, West, Bennet, Lacock, 
have all seen cases of similar convulsions. (See Watson's practice.) 

Other affections showing the same physical symptoms will be noticed 
in my next, and then the cause will be sought after with great diligence. 
Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 

LETTER X. 

My Dear Sir : I am quite unable to conjecture what you propose 
to accomplish by your last letter, since it fails to disclose any specific 
object to my mind. If it was designed merely to furnish a repast for the 
reader, the provision is liberal, and the hill of fare sufiiciently diversified. 
If the object was to get rid of a mass of heterogeneous materials, which 
had been found unsuitable and worthless in the superstructure of the ar- 
gument against the spirits, very well ; we shall not question the propriety 
of Seeking relief in this manner — in any manner — though we are sligbtly 
incommoded by having the same left on our premises. Almost any one, 
if disposed to undertake the labor, may be able to fill a quarto volume 
with crude, ill-assorted facts and mongrel phenomena, but what would 
all this avail in a scientific discussion ? And, in the present instance 
especially, what end, worthy of the subject or the occasion, can we hope 
to accomplish by writing merely to amuse ourselves .'' Will the domain 
of science be enlarged } Will faith be increased or diminished .? Will the 
devotion to truth be strengthened, or an honorable distinction achieved ? 
And if neither of these results shall be realized, I repeat, to what 
important end have we labored } Should the propriety of the foregoing 
interrogatories be questioned, I only demand careful attention to the 
contents of your letter. It will be found to consist, mainly, of a repro- 
duction of what you have before written, and the second edition is, if I 
do not misjudge, far less forcible than the original statement. In all 
your lengthy rejoinder to my seventh and eighth letters, no serious at- 
tempt is made to authenticate any one of your facts, to fortify jour 
general position, to refute what I have said in my replies, or to invali- 
date, by any logical process, the claims of the Spiritual theory. I have 
taken your facts as they were presented, and endeavored to analyze them 
with strict reference to the acknowledged principles of physical nature ; 
and, especially, by a comparison of the facts themselves with what is al- 
ready known of the nature and operations of the very agents on which 
you allege they are dependent. From this analysis of the Spiritual phe- 
nomena, and also of the powers of Material agents and the capacities of 



128 A DISCUSSION. 

tte human mind in its sublunary relations, it is made to appear, most 
distinctly, that the phenomena referred to are «ci^ regulated and governed 
by the laws of electricity, magnetism, the od-force, or any merely phys- 
ical agent at present known to the scientific world. On the contrary, 
it is no less manifest that ihe laws of those agents are constantly violated, 
and the powers of the earthly mind transcended in every possible way, 
whenever and wherever the genuine facts occur. 

Imperfectly as I may have executed my task in the first instance, I 
do not propose to repeat it in this connection, by following you in all 
the details of your letter. My remarks will be brief and general in their 
application. Reluctant as I am to question the candor of my corres- 
pondent, I hardly know how to escape the unpleasant necessity, unless 
I dispute his knowledge of the first and plainest principles of electricity 
and magnetism. Dr. Hichmond is, of course, aware that the magnet 
will not both attract and repulse the same objects ; also, that neither the 
loadstone nor the electro-magnet have any power to move a great va- 
riety of objects, which are constantly acted on, and moved in every pos- 
sible direction, by the potential agency of the spirits. Why, then, m- 
sist on a _/brce<i and wwwffi^MraZ reference, of the phenomena under dis- 
cussion, to principles which have never once produced their semblance 
in the whole history of the world .'' Why assume that they depend on 
laws which they never observe, but constantly violate .'' It still remains 
for you to demonstrate that the agents whereon you rely are capable of 
producing, in the course of their legitimate operations, the identical facts 
employed by men of undoubted intelligence as illustrations of the Spiri- 
tual theory. Indeed, you must prove that the facts are thus produced, or 
fail in the attempt to vindicate the Material hypothesis. If Materialism 
is indefensible on the principles of natural science, where it has claimed 
to be most strongly fortified, let it be abandoned. Chaining one's self 
to the naked assumption, only demonstrates the absence of a rational 
faith, and the presence of a determined skepticism. 

In view of your assumption, that the mystical phenomena can be easily 
accounted for, by reference to certain material forces and scientific prin- 
ciples, I cited the fact that men of science generally, who have had no 
opportunities for personal observation, are disposed to discredit the facts 
of the manifestations altogether, and for the reason that the phenomena 
wholly transcend the capacity of known physical causes. And how do 
you meet this significant fact, so utterly hostile to your pretensions } 
You who have quoted Gregory, Kerner, Smee, Hibbert, Drs. Wa'son, 
Barton, West, Bennet, Lacock and others, and filled long letters with 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 129 

authorities, often introduced in the strangest conceivable relations, and 
to sustain the most unnatural conclusions ? Why, even Dr. Richmond, 
who of late has taken exclusive possession of Von Reichenbach, and, 
without securing the good Baron's consent, has modified and mutilated 
his dynamics, and scourged his od-force to the most unreasonable service ; 
yes, even my correspondent accuses me of an " attempt to moh him doion 
hy mUhority .'''' And then flies off, showing a peculiar mental obliquity, 
and indulges in a philippic against gentlemen of the learned professions 
and members of Congress, who, as a body, are alleged to be unfit to in- 
vestigate by reason of " their selfish habits, their gross want of science, 
candor, &c." Now, there is something rather dramatic in this denun- 
ciation, and your deep aversion to authorities is finely illustrated, espe- 
cially on this particular occasion, by your very lengthy quotations from 
the Press. 

In the course of this discussion you have started the most improbable 
hypotheses, and, without adducing the least evidence in their support, 
have assumed them to be true, and to afford a scientific solution of the 
profoundest mysteries. You have professed to explain electrical phe- 
nomena by conjectures which involved a palpable violation of the known 
laws of electricity. Bodies have been presumed to be invested with a 
power ' identical with that of the horse-shoe magnet,' and, by virtue of 
that power, you have made those bodies attract wood, straw, and other 
substances over which, as every school-boy knows, electro-magnets have 
no such power. At one time you affirm the od-force and electricity to be 
different agents ; again, they are identical. Certain facts not admitting 
of a reference to one of these agents is readily accounted for by the 
other. Other phenomena are supposed to depend on magnetism, vac- 
uum, or the will, not as the laws of matter and mind may indicate, but 
as the caprice of the moment may determine. Your disposition of 
other phenomena would seem to authorize the inference that, each of 
these agents had proved false to its own nature ; or had been suddenly 
endowed with the attributes and powers of each and all the others. The 
will-power in ' your region ' held a lady down, so that " some men," 
who were " called in " for that purpose, " coidd not lift her^ In New- 
York, you make the same will-power subvert gravitation, so that Mr. 
Grordon goes up, and his body is suspended mid air. Thus the " will- 
magnetism,''^ to use your own term, held the lady down to the floor 
while it held Mr. Grordon ^tJ) from t}iefl,oor. But the will-magnetism of 
all those men in Ohio, who attempted to lift the person of that lady, ac- 
annplished nothing ! To account for the mysterious movements of tables,, 



130 ■ A DISCUSSION. 

and other objects formed of similar materials, you affirm that they 
become powerfully ' charged ' notwithstanding every one knows, who has 
any knowledge of the subject, that the floor is as good a conductor as 
the table, and hence, should the current from the largest voltaic pile in 
the world be passed into the table, it would as rapidly pass off into the 
floor, the waUs, and the earth, equalizing itself among the surrounding 
elements. No motion of the table would occur from the transmission of 
the current. It is well known that a train of first class railroad cars, 
moving at the rate of forty miles an hour, will not so much as move an 
ordinary sized carjpet hag, if placed at a distance of four feet from the 
track, and yet we are required to credit the monstrous assumption that, 
when a medium deliberately walks through a room, the motion of the 
body creates a vacuum which causes chairs, settees, bureaus, etc., to 
start from their places and follow on. Moreover, the atmosphere, though 
impelled by a force of about 28,000 pounds, on the entire surface of the 
air displaced, is obliged to lag behind, as appears from the fact that the 
objects mentioned follow at a convenient distance ! The lady, men- 
tioned in yom* eighth letter, attracted different objects formed of wood 
leather, iron, etc., by virtue of " the magnetic od-force of her body," 
which you assume to be ' identical with the powers of the electro-mag- 
net.' But why did those objects stop at a distance from the lady's 
person .? Did any rational man ever see a magnet for five minutes who 
did not at once perceive that, its power over the objects attracted was 
increased in proportion as the intervening distance was diminished .? 
Who, that has read so much as the title page of a work on electricity or 
magnetism, does not infallibly know that if such phenomena occurred, 
agreeably to the principle alleged by you, that the objects would not 
•only have been attracted toward the lady, but to her, and coming in 
contact with her body would have been held fast as the magnet holds 
the steel } The dry bones that found their way into a lady's sleeping- 
room — the case is mentioned in your eighth letter — you contend were 
" charged with the vital currents of her own brain," and were " attracted 
as one magnet attracts another, and having found the center of gravita- 
tion the skull floated around the bed, and over it, as the earth floats 
around the sun !" But if the attraction was dependent on the principle 
suggested — if it was identical with the action of the magnet — how was 
the centrifugal force all at once developed, and so nicely applied as not 
merely to arrest the centripetal tendency, but to exactly balance it, thus 
producing a rotary motion } You require us to believe that such phenom- 
-ena oceured without any other or higher agency than material magnet- 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 131 

ism. I have yet to find a Spiritualist half crazy enough to adopt these 
notions. Such fantastic puerilities are presented to us in the exalted 
name of Science ! And all this, and much more of the same sort, is cher- 
ished by men who have little faith in their own souls, and still less in the 
being and power of Grod's " ministering spmts." 

You admit that men have ever been essentially the same, in the con- 
stituent elements of their bodies, and that phenomena depending on 
material causes are ever substantially the sam,e. Then, why not ac- 
cept this conclusion, namely : If the genuine manifestations depended on 
physical agents merely, they would inevitably occur in all ages and coun- 
tries, xoith such modifications only as could he directly traced to existing 
physical conditions. If you can not accept this, be kind enough to show 
that the inference is illegitimate. The deduction appears to have 
frightened you ofi", and, terminating your paragraph abruptly, the atten- 
tion of the reader was at once diverted by a flourish about the effect of 
'steel on the od-force,' and its resemblance to "moon-light among 
thistle-blows " ! 

Again, when required to authenticate your facts and statements, you 
commence anew to talk of your ' martyrdom,' and of the profound ' re- 
spect you have for the feelings ' of your witnesses — their intense sensi- 
bility precludes their being summoned before a public tribunal — who 
must be allowed to remain incog ; and then, in a derisive spirit quite 
inappropriate to the circumstances of the occasion, you propose to prove 
your personal credibility by one whose individuality is altogether uncer- 
tain. And thus it is manifestly intended to avoid the necessity of prov- 
ing anything — even the facts adduced hy yourself — in the present contro- 
versy. By this time the cloud may be so dense as to render it difiicult 
for the reader to determine who ' raised the dust.' 

Your quotations from the newspapers prove nothing for or against 
your views. Whether certain terms and images, employed in your re- 
cent letters, are in good taste, I may not decide ; also, how far you are 
successful in your attempts to be facetious, when argument is demanded, 
and to what extent, in the advocacy of your present hypothesis, you 
pour contempt on certain Spiritual phenomena narrated in the New 
Testament, is left to the decision of impartial judges. 

Hoping that your next letter will evince a more serious and candid 
spirit, I am, Yours faithfully, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 

DR B. W. RICHMOND TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

LETTER XI. 

Dear Sir : The important question still remains — can eels frofhesy^ 
and tables and bedsteads dance ? I append two examples to show the 
possibility of the latter. The first, I have from Mr. A. J. Davis, 
recently in our place. At High Rock, Mass., at the house of a friend, 
an Irish servant began to have the rajis, when she gave attention to it 
communications were received by a number indicating considerable intel- 
ligence. One night she retired to bed, and the family were awakened 
by a tremendous noise tip stairs. On going up to her room, Mr. D. 
with the family, saw the girl wrapped in her cloak, lying on the floor 
under the bed, singing at the top of her breath — raps were on the wall, 
and about the room, loud and frequent. The singing continued, and 
directly the mattress " rose from the bed and began to float in the air, 
and kej)t time exactly to her singing, it finally fell in front of the bed," 
and then the bedstead began to move, first one leg, then another, then 
all, and kept time to the singing of the girl, and was moved with such vio- 
lence as to nearly demolish it. The Irish od-force had charged the mat- 
tress and bedstead, and the vibrations of the tune seem to have been 
the medium of keeping them in motion. 

The second case is found in the N. Y. Tribu')ie of Dec. 4. 

" Singular results are obtained in this City from a very simple application of 
the nervous fluid, animal magnetism, or whatever be the agency, to brute matter. 
Let a party of six or eight persons sit around a common pine table for twenty 
minutes to half an hour, with the palms of the hands held flat on the top of the table ; 
it is not necessary that their minds should pay any attention to the process, or the 
ordinary conversation be suspended ; but presently the table becomes so charged 
with the mysterious fluid that it begins to move ; then rise from it, push away 
your chairs, still holding your hands near, though it is not necessary to touch it, 
and if will turn around from end to end, and even proceed rapidly about the 
room, without any visible agent, on which excursions the persons must bear it 
company, or the current is broken and the movement stops. This simple experi- 
ment may easily be tried ; it requires no faith and no outlay of physical or moral 
strength ; and the result, with a table that is not too heavy, is pretty sure to fol- 
low ; at least, we have known of several instances in which it has been most aston- 
ishingly produced. The fact, when scientifically established, must throw light on 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 133 

the obscurities of Mesmerism, Spiritual Manifestations, and all that unexplored 
class of phenomena. 

These cases approach a demonstration that the human mind can move 
matter, through contact with the od-force of the human body, as nearly 
as the tacts approach a demonstration, on whicli we base our behef in 
the laws of gravitation. To make it approach the closeness of chemical 
demonstrations, let some of the cZear-seers be taken into these experi- 
ments, and let them test the facts as did Von Reichenbach ; it is easy to 
do so ; the very sensitive, sickly^ magnetic persons, can see the fluid as it 
is thrown from the hands of the operators on to the table, and the 
response of the vibrations of this fluid to music, shows it to be controlled 
by the notes of the singer. My victory in this matter is to be too easy — 
friend Brittan I feel provoked. 

B'uchauan'' s Joibrnal of Man, for January, 1852, contains interesting 
experiments, by a lady in Illinois, on loilling matter. They seem to 
confirm the above experiments on the tables. I must now return to 
symptoms wich occur in witchcraft — mental and moral diseases. 

" Dr. Horneck states that, in the Swedish village of Morah, in Elfland, witch- 
craft became general. Several hundred children were drawn into it. Fifteen 
were executed — thirty ran the gauntlet, and were lashed at the church door 
weekly for a Avhole year. Twenty of the youngest suffered three days only. 

" The suspected witches were confronted with tlie children, and three hundred 
children were agreed in the following story : The children were told by the 
witches to go to a stream and invoke the Devil, who appeared finely dressed, with 
gray coat, red stockings, red beard, high hat, various colored linen wrapped 
around it, and garters of peculiar length. He anointed the children, set them on 
beasts, and carried them to Blocula mountain. Most of the children thought 
they went bodily — others that their sjnrits only went — their parents always 
finding their children in bed, and could not awake them out of a deep sleep, 
though they shook them violently. They also fell into fits — strange, unusual 
postures."*' [Walter Scott's Witchcraft and Demonology, p. 187. 

Who does not see magnetic sleep, convulsions, fits, contortions, &e., 
in this account of witchcraft } Do these symptoms occur among medi- 
ums and spirit-rappers .'' 

Let us now run a parallel between the symptoms of Witchcraft, Spirit- 
rappers, Kentucky Jerkers, French prophets and Mormon prophets. 
What do we find in New-England Witchcraft .' 

The first case occurred in the family of a Mr. Groodwin. After a 
quarrel with an Irish woman, " three of the children were seized with 
strange diseases., and the neighbors thought them bewitched." Here are 
their symptoms : "They stiffened their necks so hard at one time that 
the joints could not be moved ; at another time their necks tvere soflexi- 
* See ApjDendix, Note 0. 



134 A DISCUSSION. 

hh and suph that the bone seemed dissolved ; they had violent convulsions 
in which their jaws snajiped, with the force of a spring-trap set for ver- 
min ; their li7nbs were curiously contorted, and seemed dislocated and 
displaced. Amid these contortions they cried out against the poor old 
woman, whose name was Glover, alleging she was in presence, with them^ 
adding to their torments. The oldest girl, to show her minister it wa.s 
of the Devil, could read a treatise in defense of the Quakers, but nothing 
against them ; coiold read a Clmrch of England prayer looJc^ hut not the 
Bible. She was sometimes merry, and would in imagination mount a 
pony, and seated in her chair, mimic riding ; would canter up stairs, but 
could not enter the Parson's study, but when pulled in, she stood up 
relieved. For this, says the simple minister, reasons were given " more 
kind than true." Dame Grlover was hung. In the family of Mr. Par- 
vis, two children were taken. Their symptoms were : " Their mouths 
were stopped,^ throats choked, limbs racked, and they sato the specters of 
those who bewitched them. An old Indian and squaw were tried and 
hung. Finally the afflicted began to see the specters of those in high life, 
and some escaped ; others were arrested ; some executed. A child five 
years old was indicted, its ghost having been seen, and a dog (poor Tray) 
was hanged, having been seen busy in the mischief. A Mr. Cory was 
pressed to death ; in his agony he thrust out his tongue ; the sherifi 
crammed it back with his cane. Nineteen were executed, and two hun- 
dred were imprisoned.* 

The really innocent in this devilish outrage were those who were exe- 
cuted, the bewitched being under a magnetic disease ; some who were 
suspected were also diseased. Cotton Mather says the more they appre- 
hended the more seemed to be affected ; terror seemed to develop the 
condition. The Indians themselves were amazed at the foolish Colo- 
nists. (Su' Walter Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 234.) 

In the same work, page 181, we find the following : " In the begin- 
ning of the sixteenth century persecutions for witchcraft broke out in 
France, and multitudes were burned by authority of law." The deluded 
in this case supposed they were taught by the Devil, but his promises 
failed, just as promises made through mediums fail. He told them to 
face the rack and faggot and they should not be hurt ; but Grovernment 
burned them by thousands. They accused the Devil of lying. During 
their torture, they fell into ^^ profound stupor,'''' which had something 
of Paradise in it, being gilded, says the Judge, by the presence of the 
DevU. 

The witches came together in multitudes, in conventions, before the 
* See Appendix, Note P. 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 135 

gates of Bordeaux and in the square of Galienna. The Devil told them 
he would confound their enemies ; but he failed, and lost much credit. 
When they attempted to confess before the Royal Commissioners, they 
were stopped with " open ?nozUhs, as if the throat was obstructed." 
They upbraided his majesty, and said, " Your promise was, that our 
mothers, who were prisoners, should not die ; but see they are burned 
and are a heap of ashes." To evade this mutiny Satan had two eva- 
sions. He created illusory fires, and encouraged the mutinous to walk 
through them assuring them that the judicial pile was as frigid as the 
fires they saw. Again, taking his refuge in lies, he stoutly affirmed that 
their parents, who seemed to have suffered, were safe in a foreign coun- 
try, and if their children would call on them, each would receive an 
answer. They made the invocation accordingly, and each was answered 
by Satan in a tone that resembled the voice of the deceased parent (speaking 
mediums) almost as successfully as Monsieur Alexander could have 
done. Just refer to the Farmington mediums and note the exact 
resemblance. The failure of the Devil must have been for want of 
" harmony " in the meeting, as the Cleveland mediums failed. 

President Dwight, in his account of New-England witchcraft says 
that most of the convictions rested on '■'■spectral testimony.'''' Dogs and 
children were implicated. One man who complained to a magistrate, 
received half the fees — ten lashes, as due to the informant. Another 
man prosecuted the accusers and the cases ceased. One man leuitched 
and rode a dog ; being suspected, he ran away. In the Conn. His. Col. 
a case of witchcraft is detailed. The affected fell on the floor and rolled 
over and over with such violence that he had to be restrained from going 
into the fire. The hogs would run around on their hind legs and squeal. 
One pig's ear was cut off, and the old tooman suspected always kept her 
ear muffled — (she was in leaugue with my friend " Hog Devil, doubt- 
less.) Soap would boil over, potash boilers also were tormented with 
their potash running over. They shot into it and the old lady was found 
dead in bed. Another case occurred where " specters talking " were 
seen by the man — two females — he accosted them in the name of G-od, 
and they vanished so quick that they left their "Aoo^5" on the spot. 
Grhosts wear ionnets and costumes. Whoever will look into the records 
of this disease — for such it is — will find it attended with rolling of the 
head — suhsultus of the hands and arms — clairvoyance — spectral illusion 
— magnetic en rapport with those around them. Some of those accused, 
seem conscious of an ability to put themselves en rapport with those^ 
the}' wish to afiect. Hence they burn wax images, or bake clay images; 



136 A DISCUSSION. 

of them before a fire, keeping their minds fixed on the one they wish to 
curse. A reading medium pestered the good minister in one of these 
cases. In Sweden reading children have recently appeared. In Grer- 
many speaking and other mediums have appeared in great numbers. 
Children are mainly the subjects of it. They are clairvoyant and the 
preaching is made up of Scripture-hymns learned at Sabbath school. An 
account appeared in the Trihune, last winter, of a people in the north 
of Sweden, efiected by a phrenzy similar to the one which appeared 
among the French prophets — they have visions — prophesy, and go into 
spasms. 

In Bnchanan''s Journal (vol. i, p., 133) we find the following on witch- 
craft. A teacher writing to the Journal, says : " Most persons here 
beheve in witches, and some persons are chased by specters. One wo- 
man was Iridled by a cat in her bed and transformed to a horse, and 
rode all over the country, and then put in bed again. It was a muddy 
time, and I told them she must have needed rubbing down in the morn- 
ing." " Features of persons are seen in open daylight." 

" Women frequently see their husbands come home and turn out their 
horses, but do not return in three or four days." 

Dr. Buchanan replies : " This is easily explained by neurology. I 
have demonstrated the existence of an organ of Spectral Illusion, at the 
posterior part of Imagination and Marvelousness. This organ, when 
large, or excited by any cause, or by fever or insanity, gives rise to 
these illusions."* 

It will be noticed that some mediums talk in unknown tongues — and 
is referable to a peculiar magnetic condition, as proved by the following 
statement of Dr. Kerner : 

" The Seeherin of Prevorst, in her magnetic state, spoke for days together in 
verse and in an unknown tongue. She gives a specimen of it in words and sen- 
tences. She says every person has it, and it is the language of tlie passions. A 
Mormon in Portage, N. Y., perfectly illiterate, would, after prayer and singing, 
start up from a reverie and talk for an hour in a wild jargon, and then stop with 
a wild jerk. A young lady, Eunice Sawyer, an interpreter, would then raise 
her eyes, rolled up and half shut, and interpret the tongue. At the Cleveland 
Convention of mediums, a similar scene occurred : a young man spoke in an In- 
dian tongue a wild splutter of words from a somnambulist." 

The Mormons give undoubted evidence of being clairvoyant. Their 
celebrated prophet had a premonition of his coming end. The earlier 
Mormons were frequently attended with twitching and convulsions. 
This mental and moral condition was seen among the nations of antiqui- 
ty, and was found coupled with the arts of magic and witchcraft, and at 
* See Appendix, ISTote Q, 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 137 

times these persons became so numerous that the Grovernment could not 
control them. " They acted strangely,'' say the historians, " and in 
towns and cities the multitude thus affected were vastly more numerous 
than those that were not." Zasinius' account of this magical state in 
the reign of Valentinian, and Valens clearly shows it to have been a 
magnetic epidemic. A sect arose also, called Jumpers, among the 
Welsh, much like the above, and a sect ofWhippers in France. They 
sought righteousness by whipping each other. They were sad and 
gloomy, and swelled to thousands. Their moral and physical symp- 
toms resembled the above — specimens of religious disease. In fact, 
the Middle Ages were constantly deluged with such sects. The Whip- 
pers in vast multitudes were often seen in the streets — priest and cardi- 
nal — with leathern thongs, whipping each others' naked backs to the 
glory of God. 

In 1373, a sect of Dancers sprang up in Flanders. They would all 
at once fall to dancing in the most violent manner, and, when exhausted 
by the exercise, would fall down together in a trance, and had visions, 
saw spirits, and would finally awake from the state. (Mosheim, vol. ii, 
page 540.) The sect were numerous, and were cured by music. Mo- 
sheim traces this sect down to the present Shakers, who it seems have 
had W7-iting VLVidi speaking mediums, for more than half a century. 

The following is a summary of the symptoms attending the Convul- 
sionists of France : In 16SS, a sect of Convulsionists appeared in France. 
Five or sis hundred Protestants of both sexes regarded themselves in- 
spired by the Holy Ghost They in the main resembled the Jerkers. 
Their numbers swelled to thousands. They were of all ages and sexes, 
but chiefly boys and girls and persons of middle age. They had strange Jits, 
staggered and iremhled, and fell down as in a trance. They struck them- 
selves, fell on their backs, and heaved their breasts. They remained 
awhile in trances, came out with twitches, and uttered all that came into 
then- heads. They saw Heaven, Hell, Paradise, and angels — probably 
the " Ten Angels." Before prophesying, they had violent agitations of 
the body. The burden of their prophecies was : " Piepent ye ; amend your 
lives ; the end of all things draws nigh. The hills resounded with their 
cries for mercy, and imprecations against the priests. 

A writer in the American Gazette notices several similar sects — the 
principal called the Yezidis : 

" The American missionaries. Grant and Hinsdale, visited them during the pe- 
riod of their residence among the Nestorians in Persia and the Kurds 

" The most prominent feature ia the doctrine of the Yezidis is, that they believe 



138 A DISCUSSION. 

not only tliat the spirit who is the cause of all evil was originally good, and Las 
fallen from God, but that he will, in the end, be reconciled again This ap- 
plies exactly to a Christian sect which sprang up in the eleventh century in the 
Byzantine empire, coming from Thrace and the neighboring country, under the 
name of Prayers, Enthusiasts — so called from their _?7ra;yers and convulsions. 
The Constantinopolitan writer, Michael the Stammerer, from whom we obtain our 
knowledge of this sect, notices a third class ^ho only honored Satan, and 
set themselves in direct opposition to God. It is doubtful, however, whether 
this distinction is founded on truth. We find another striking correspondence 
between the Euchitse and the Yezidis : the former boasted of special }-evelatio?is, 
appealed to visions and cojivulsions , and this we find also among the Yezidis. 

The Thracian mentions, as an example, an occurrence which took place 

when he attended a meeting of his sect in Southern Dalamatia : a man in an ec- 
static state rose and denounced him as' having been sent by the government to 
lay snares for the sect, and publish their secrets, and take him prisoner to Con- 
stanstinople. There is another resemblance to the Yezidis in the practice of the 
Euchitse of holding nightly meetings, at which the lamps were extinguished."* 

You see they could not get any demonstrations while the candle was 
lighted, and we trace clearly the symjptoms that attend all divisions of the 
sects that have arisen, in a similar way. I myself am a Yezidi, as I 
have always believed the devil (if there be one or more) was a ^perfect 
gentleman compared with those who charge their sins upon him. The one 
I have described, should he root over anything and break it, " I am 
responsible for it :" give him plenty of " corn" and let him " pump" 
occasionally. But to return. Gibbon describes a sect of Christians, 
called Suicides^ who sought martyrdom as their chief glory, compelling 
others to kill them, and also killing themselves — a fact that can only be 
explained by supposing them to be laboring under some peculiar fever 
of the mind. During the terrible fanaticisms that raged about the be- 
ginning of the fifth century, Timothy the Cat, an ambitious monk, suc- 
ceeded Dioscones in the government of the church of Alexandria ; his 
successor was murdered and burned, his ashes scattered to the wind. 

The cruel tyrant waged a five-years' war against the people and 

Christians of every degree, and deprived them of temporal and spiritual 

comforts. Gibbon says that -' a pretended vision of an angel" led to 

the murder. " Under the consulship of Venantius and Celer," says a 

grave Bishop, " the people of Alexandria and all Egypt were seized 

with a strange and diabolical frenzy, great and small, slaves and freemen, 

monks and clergy — the natives of the land who opposed the Synod of 

Chalcedon lost their speech and reason, and harked like dogs, and tore 

with their own teeth the flesh from their hands and arms." (Gib. vol. 

iv.,p. 522.) 

* See Appendix, Note R. 



RICHMOND AND J3RITTAN. 139 

One rejoices when he sees that the tyrants who had imposed such suf- 
ferings on the Egyptians, that famine and disease had in them the seeds 
of the tyrant's destruction. The " vision of the angeV points clearly to 
second sight. The symptom of barking points to the symptom of rolling 
.of the head from side to side, or more usually to the movement back 
and forward — Salaam convulsions., as they arc called in medical books. 
Many persons are now living in this region who witnessed the jerkers in 
their exercises, and affirm that the bark was occasioned by a sudden 
move of the head back and forward, and the air seemed thrown in a 
sudden jut from the throat, and resembled the bark of an untutored 
puppy. 

We will now turn our investigations to the cause of these symptoms 
of body and mind, and of necessity must again call attention to nervous 
persons. St Vitus' Dance (chorea sancti viti) was first observed in a 
saint, to whom a chapel was dedicated in Suabia. Persons in like man- 
ner drum with their hands, (this was often observed among the jerkers, 
and is seen among mediums ;) their heads turn with great rapidity from 
side to 5i(ie (rotation ;) they have &ts of running (propulsion.) All 
these symptoms I have seen among mediums, (see Watson's Practice, 
p. 406.) Kinderwood relates a case where the patient, a young, un- 
married woman, was attacked. She beat her limbs with the palms of 
the hand — danced on one leg — was half raised from the chair afid reseated 
— toould leap upward., and strike the ceiling with the palms of the hands 
— touch small holes in the ceiling— made steps about the room, her lips 
moving, but no sound ; a person recognised the tune and sung ; she 
danced at once up to him till tired out. A drum was beaten ; she danced 
up to it and missed a step., and the motions ceased ; this always occurred 
when the measure was changed. A continued roll on the drum stopped 
her movements, and this was seized on as a hint to her cure. The pa- 
tient was conscious, and said that a tuoie was on her mind., and she was 
impelled to follow the notes. Her symptoms always ceased when the 
catamenia appeared. Compare this case with the case related by Mr. 
Davis, of the singing-medium at High Rock. Dr. Abercrombie relates 
a case of a lady sick of nervous afi"ections for two years ; was finally at- 
tacked with convulsions ; would lay quiet a long time ; then her whole 
body would be moved by a convulsive spring, and fall on the floor. 
While in this posture she would return to the bed by a spring, or leap 
on to a wardrobe some five feet high — the body moving horizontally like 
a fish. Her senses remained entire ; she was, she said, moved by a se- 
cret ivipulse ; she was often thrown back, her head and heels approach-. 



140 A DISCUSSION. 

ing near together, with twitches and convulsive movements. Compare this 
case with the medium who was tormented by " John Smith." The above 
patient of Dr. Wood's had a rotation of the head night and day for weeks 
together, which motion was increased to a frightful extent if the neck 
was touched. Cupping cured the patient, the symptoms ceasing with 
a jerk. The symptoms returned. Iron administered, which regulated ' 
all the uterine functions^ a jerk again occurred, and she remained well 
at the writing of the account. The case detailed in my last letter that 
I stopped with emetic tartar, was in part caused by periodic interruptions 
— caused by cold. Seeing another medium jerk, she seemed affected 
by sympathy. Many«similar cases are recorded by Watson. Dr. Watt, 
of Grlasgow, relates a case where the patient was first seized with rotation, 
then " whirling,'''' like the whirling Dervishes ; then lying on the bed, 
she was seized with rolling from one end to the other of the bed ; rolled 
the whole length of the gravel walk in a garden, and when put into wa- 
ter, rolled like a spiral-wheel. The rotations were sixty a minute. 
Finally, she placed her head and feet together like a hoop, and, lying on 
the bed, would straighten out suddenly ; and this she continued for four- 
teen hours together. She then took to standing on her head and falling 
down suddenly on her knees, for fifteen hours a day. 

She recovered by a spontaneous diarrhea. Men are also subject to 
similar fits, as they are subjects of pure hysteria, as well as females ; but 
these cases occur more frequently in females. Majendie tells us of a 
man who was seized with a fit oi propulsion ; would sally into the streets, 
and walk rapidly forward till he dropped down. Tubercles were found 
in the brain, when examined after death. I have known a similar case 
of a young man who was upset in a love affair. He will sally forth all 
of a sudden, and walk or trot for hours together, heating his hands against 
his thighs with great rapidity. He procured himself a dress, and put 
on T^vomen's clothes ; he declared he was a lass of " sweet sixteen." 
Majendie speaks of a woman who had an opposite propulsion ; would 
run back constantly, with rapidity, and the movements being involuntary, 
she often fell over obstacles and into hollows, and was hurt. I have 
known one case of a woman, laboring under both movements, in fits of 
insanity ; she would move back a rod or two, and then go forward, then 
back again ; she declared the devil had run her out of the " straight 
and narroiD path.'''' Any deep impression on certain parts of the brain 
seems capable of producing these symptoms. In Scotland a disease has 
been noticed, to which the name of " leaping ague'" has been given. 
The malaria seems to act on that part of the brain which gives rise to 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 141 

these various movements. A shoemaker, after a debaueli, thought him- 
self turning, aud soon began to revolve, and continued till he died. I 
myself once suffered a similar attack from eating. I had fasted all day 
and was much fatigued ; on returning at night I ate warm bread, which 
soon distressed my stomach, and the house and all nature began to 
whii-1, and on my trying to walk, I whirled around and could not walk 
in a straight line. 

Says Professor Buchanan, {Journal of Man, vol. i. No. 11 :) " A 
lady of cultivated and vigorous mind consented to undergo the operation, 
to gratify her love of philosophical knowledge. I found, after a few 
movements of the hand along the median line of the head, from the nape 
of the neck forward to the root of the nose, that the divergence of the 
eyes was distinctly produced with a peculiar state of mind. * * * 
The physiological balance was so completely destroyed that she was 
unable to sit erect. Her head and body would recline to one side ; as 
she attempted to correct the bias, it reclined to the other side. Be- 
tween the two influences she leaned in one direction, ov rocked from side 
to side. * * * These vibrations continued for an hour or more, 
spite of all that could be done to restore the equilibrium. * * * 
Her mental phenomena were equally singular." 

In this beautiful experiment of Dr. Buchanan, we come at the modus 
operandi of mind in producing these curious symptoms — the brain and 
body being dioal, (double,) and the vital currents crossing at the base 
of the brain, keep the two hemispheres of the body in continuity. 
When he disturbed these currents, the head rolled from side to side 
Majendie cut the cerebellum of a rabbit vertically on the. left side ; the 
animal rolled over and over toward the cut side. The same thing oc- 
curred when the crus cerebelli was cut. When the corpus striatum 
is cut away, the animal darts forward ; cutting the pons varolii causes 
the animal to rotate from right to left, or from left to right, accoi;ding 
to the side on which the section occurs. Buchanan's experiment shows 
that disturbance of the nerve aura causes these movements, and Ma- 
jendie's experiments prove that in voluntary movements of animal life, 
the will applies the nerve fluid to these different points in the brain to 
cause rotation., right or left movements, or forward or backward move- 
ments. The cases I have detailed prove that various physical causes 
may direct the life forces of volition to these various points of the brain. 
K pin in a certain part of the medulla-oblongata caused a pigeon to fly 
lack-ward'; a section toward the anterior pyramids causes a circu- 
lar movement like a horse in a mill. Observing many of these strange 



142 A DISCUSSION. 

motions in mediums, my attention was directed to this subject. Watson 
couples chorea, epilepsy, and these apparent tricks with the vagaries of 
hysterics ; and seeing almost all mediums of that tem;perammt^ I was led 
to think Spirit-rappings were part of the same. Hysterical women in 
the wards of Hospitals are often in sympathetic rapport. One troubled 
with a hall in the throat (says Watson) was relieved by the probang 
being passed into the throat. She instantly went into a fit, and, at the 
same moment, many other women in the Hospital were affected with 
hysterical spasms. These simultaneo^os movements show the law of mag- 
netic rapport conclusively. Imitation is another of its peculiarities ; al- 
most every disease is imitated in the hysterical temperament, when all at 
once a fit relieves the patient of the former symptoms. 

The physical causes of such temperaments will occupy my next. 
Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 



LETTER XI. 



Dear Sir : I have been anxiously waiting for you to ' get tlie planks 
of your platform together,' conscious that it will be a relief to have 
something to stand on, even though it be wholly artificial. I have to 
regret that your immediate prospects in this direction are not commen- 
surate with the necessities of the case. At present, however, instead 
of that " platform," so beautiful in its ideal structure and proportions, I 
see nothing but a mass of irregular fragments which, like those peculiar 
rocks of the Shetland Isles, seem to increase in their superficial dimen- 
sions as often as they are smitten and shivered by the fire of thought, or 
scattered by the electric force of reason. These fragments in no way 
resemble the different portions of a building, on which the artisan has 
left the impress of his plastic hand. Many of " the planks " appear to 
be shaky ^ and as they float along, manifestly without design and without 
order, I am constantly reminded of the drift-wood in a freshet, rather 
than of a splendid edifice, whose complete parts the skillful mechanist 
might put together " without the sound of a hammer." 

Without further introduction, I proceed to a brief esamination of the 
contents of your letter. The facts referred to in the first paragraph, 
are well authenticated. The testimony of Mr. Davis would be suffi- 
cient, but I am happy to state that a number of other persons, whose 
veracity can not be questioned, are ready to bear witness to the occur- 
rences at High Rock, If no similar phenomena had occurred elsewhere, 
this case alone, if fairly presented in all its startling details, would be 
sufficient to drive a rational man from every hypothesis that Material- 
ism has yet devised. And yet, you quote the facts as complacently as 
if they were precisely adapted to your purpose. Allow me to remind 
you, my dear sir, that a multitude of facts and authorities will avail 
nothing in this case, unless they contribute to sustain your cause. One 
would be liable to infer, from the course you pursue, that the number of 
witnesses alone insure safety, no matter what may be the import of their 
testimony. Now, I ask the reader to notice the facts : ' Loud and 
frequent raps were heard on the wall and about the room,' while the 



144 A DISCUSSION. 

medium was " lying on the floor " ; the ' mattress was raised from the 
hed and floated in the air '' ; also, ' the bedstead moved, first one leg, 
then another, and finally all, and beat time to the music, while the girl 
continued singing, and until the bedstead was well nigh demolished by 
the violence of its motion ' ! All this was done in the presence of re- 
liable witnesses, and without any visible or other known agency of the 
medium, or any earthly being. My correspondent accepts these facts. 
By introducing them in the manner he has, an unqualified indorsement 
is distinctly implied. And now it may concern the reader to know how 
Dr. Richmond disposes of the whole matter ; so here is the explanation 
in full : '■'■The Irish od-force had charged the mattress and bedstead, and 
the vibrations of the tune seem to have been the medium of keeping them in 
motion " .' To ordinary minds the subject involves a great mystery, to 
be sure, but your explanation is all comprehended in about two lines ; 

" Since brevity's the soul of wit," 
it need not require more. And how clear the subject appears now ! 
The luminous emanations, said to accompany the odic force, are lost in 
the superior light of your exposition. There is one point, however, 
that may still admit of further elucidation. I refer to the singular 
eifects of vocal music on the bedstead. The ' vibrations of that tune ' 
were certainly very wonderful, surpassing anything of the kind in our 
experience. We have attended some of the recent concerts of Madame 
Sontag, at Metropolitan Hall, in which she was sustained by a powerful 
orchestra and six hundred chorus singers, but " the vibrations of that 
tune " moved nothing in the hoLise — save the feelings of the audience. 
Seriously, whether this twaddling is to be ascribed to a disposition to 
trifle with the whole subject, or to some other cause, we shall not ven- 
ture to decide, but in all sincerity we ask, can Dr. Richmond for a mo- 
ment suppose that any person, not wholly destitute of reason, will accept 
this trifling remark as an explanation of the phenomena .' If we are 
unequal to the task of a scientific disquisition, let us, at least, treat the 
subject in such a manner as will not offend the common sense of the un- 
educated reader. 

The case credited to the New-York Tribune., appears to indicate a 
want of critical observation of the facts, in their supposed relations to the 
dynamics of imponderable substances. On account of the respectability 
of the journal through which the paragraph referred to obtained pub- 
licity, itias been extensively copied, and, for this reason, I shall notice 
it more particularly than might otherwise seem to be necessary. I do 
not doubt the actual occurrence of the phenomena described, but take 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 145 

the liberty to question their subserviency to your purpose, and must be 
allowed to repudiate, in the main, the Tribune's philosophy of their 
causation. The writer o? the paragraph affirms that, the facts he de- 
scribes are not dependent on the mental condition and action of the par- 
ties in whose presence they occur ; to use his own language : " It is 
not necessary that their minds should pay any attention to the process ;" 
moreover, the experitiimt '■'•requires no faith^ and no outlay of physical 
or moral strength." So far, therefore, as the paragraph under review 
proves anything on this point, it certainly proves that the moving of 
tables, &c., is not, in any manner, produced by the action of minds in 
the body. To this extent, at least, it is at war with your hypothesis. 
This being settled, and the existence of any Spiritual agency being also 
denied, it only remains to refer the facts, if that be possible, to the nat- 
ural opreation of electricity or some other imponderable element ; and 
this accords with the writer's own conclusion. 

I now propose to consider whether the facts will admit of such refe- 
rence, and to compare what the writer merely assumes^ with what is now 
generally known. It is said that the table " becomes charged with the 
mysterious fluid," froin the vital batteries of the persons whose hands 
rest upon it ; and the various and eccentric motions of the table are pre- 
sumed to be natural eifects, wholly depending on the subtile principle 
wherewith its substance is pervaded. To this conjecture I oppose three 
several objections, any one of which is deemed fatal to the Tribune''s 
hypothesis. 

1. The human body is a vastly better conductor of electricity, espe- 
cially of that which is generated by its own processes of chemical and 
muscular action, than the table or any piece of seasoned wood ; and, for 
this reason, the vital electricity would not readily pass from the body to 
such inanimate objects. Nor is this all ; the transmission of this agent 
from living bodies to lifeless and unorganized matter, is rendered 
extremely difficult, and almost impossible, on account of the non-con- 
duding quality of the skin. The cuticle when dry is so poor a conductor 
of electricity that very little can be directly discharged from the body, 
even by the most vigorous eiTort of the wiU. The quantity thus dis- 
engaged is so small as to escape detection, except when the most deli- 
cate instruments are employed. The most successful experiments hith- 
erto, have only demonstrated the fact that ihe needle of a very sensitive 
galvanometer may be moved by volition. But in this experiment it is 
necessary to communicate with the wires leading to the poles of the 
instrument, by placing their extremities and the hands of the experi- 

10 



146 A DISCUSSION. 

menter in a solution of salt in water, whicb. by wetting the cuticle ren- 
ders it a good conductor, so tbat animal electricity is disengaged with 
less difficulty. To this peculiarity of the skin, and certain other mem- 
branes, we are indebted for the capacity to resist, in a very great degree, 
the electrical changes of the earth and atmosphere, which, otherwise, 
would at once interrupt the electrical equilibrium of the system, and thus 
derange the whole vital economy. The basis of my first objection may 
be thus briefly stated : 1. Living, animal bodies are vastly better elec- 
trical conductors than seasoned ■wood, and as it is the nature of electricity 
to follow the best conductors, it would stay in the human body, and hence 
the tables would not " become charged with the mysterious fluid. " 2. The 
cuticle is a bad conductor, which renders the disengagement of vital 
electricity, in any degree appreciable by its effects on inert substances, 
extremely difficult or impossible. 3. The most decided results hitherto 
obtained, by the best scientific experiments in this department, consist 
in deflections of the needle of a very delicate instrument, to the extent 
of some thirty to fifty degrees, which would not move the weight of an 
ordinary tailor's needle. 

2. It is well known to every electrician that a table could not be 
charged with electricity, so as to produce any sensible results, without it 
was previously insulated ; and, as insulation is not one of the conditions 
to success in the experiment, the assumption that the table is charged, 
in any unusual manner, is rendered utterly indefensible, and this con- 
clusion is based on the acknowledged laws of electricity. These re- 
marks are not less relevant, if the phenomena be referred to some other 
agent. Any force-agent that could be conducted through the medium 
of the table would find the floor an equally good conductor, and hence 
the former could never be charged, except in the manner already stated. 
Some men — Dr. Taylor, of Petersham, and my correspondent are among 
the number — speak of electricity as " detached,'''' or " loose,'''' as though this 
mysterious presence which travels with the speed of thought, and with 
the same ease through earth, and sea, and air, had been subject to close 
confinement until recently, and might even now be cooked up like a do- 
mestic fowl. True, the table stands on the floor, which is just as good 
a conductor, but electricity, nevertheless, g'e^^ set among the fibers of the 
wood,,, and, in its struggles to get out, turns the tables over, or carries 
them with it in its clumsy efibrts to achieve its freedom ! 

3. Suppose it were possible to charge the table in the manner indi- 
cated. Admit, if you please, for the sake of the argument, that the 
table does " become charged with the mysterious fluid ;" what then i 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 147 

That would not move it. Charge any body to its utmost capacity, and, 
in the absence of any contrivance for alternately interrupting and re- 
storing the equilibrium, neither sound nor motion would occur. You 
may charge, if you will, a thousand leyden jars and not one of ihevi will 
be moved a hair''s breadth by the operation. And thus the loaded tables 
are discharged. 

Seeing that the principles of physical science afford no solution of the 
mystery, you have, in the last emergency, the alternative of falling back 
on the idea of Spiritual agency, or ot begging the whole question, as 
many have done, by assuming that the table mthst be moved by some un- 
known law of material nature. Here I rest the point, leaving my cor- 
respondent and the writer in the Tribune to hang on either horn of the 
dilemma, as they may choose, and will conclude my remarks under this 
head, by moving to postpone the discussion of any unknown p-inciples of 
Nature until they come to be knotvn. 

I do not propose any extended review of the remaining portions of 
your letter. I think I shall not undertake to prove, in this connection, 
that ignorance, superstition, delusion, fanaticism and disease, are 
Spiritual Manifestations ; much less that they are reliable, or to be de- 
sired. I cordially confess that these do not very well illustrate the 
claims of the Spiritual theory, and I therefore resign them, leaving my 
friend to refer the facts, if he will, to the old Materialism, where their 
principal causes are most likely to be found. With respect to Demon- 
ology and Witchcraft, however, it may be proper to remark that the 
Scripture writers, as well as many modern authors, abundantly prove the 
occurrence, in different ages and countries, of many strange and start- 
lino- phenomena which have been thus classified. It will be exceedingly 
difficult, I apprehend, to refer all those to merely physical causes. 
Should you be successful in this attempt, your labors will prejudice the 
claims of no inconsiderable portion of the New Testament. The results 
of human Experience, the voice of History, and the testimony of Reve- 
lation, all unite to assure us, that while thousands have been led astray 
by fancy and fanaticism, many singular facts have occured for which 
Materialism, with all the resources of modern science and art, has failed 
to furnish any rational solution. But the particular facts, cited by you 
on the present occasion, are not such as I am disposed to select in vin- 
dicating the Spiritual theory, and I may, therefore, save myself the un- 
necessary labor of a more formal reply to specific examples. 

Each succeeding week brings us fresh evidence of your remarkable 
aversion to authorities. This is manifested by a seeming disposition to 



148 A DISCUSSION. 

* use them up ' as fast as possible. We have no objection to a republi- 
cation of the balance of Kerner, and the remaining portions of Scott's 
Demonclogy and Witchcraft, etc., only that we do not wish to infringe 
the copy right law. 

Here I rest the subject, for the present, and am 

Thine fraternally, S. B. BRITTAN. 



PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PHENOMENA, 

DR B. W. RICHMOND TO S. B BRITTAN 

LETTER XII. 

Dear Sir : Your replies to my ninth and tenth letters are not 
received, and time renders it needful that you should have the last of 
the twelve in which I am to lead. In my last two I have grouped 
together certain phonomena — physical and mental, occurring in individ- 
uals and masses of individuals ; and the symptoms so nearly agree that 
no serious attempt will be made to deny the identity of cause. The 
physical symptoms in the individual I conceive to be produced by a 
physical cause — operating on the brain and nervous system of the per- 
son — resulting in sleep, trance, convulsions, jerks, spasms, rotation of 
the, head,, tremblings, starts, and various violent muscular exercises. 

The mental phenomena, speaking, dreaming, visions, ghost-seeing, are 
caused by mind acting on mind, and the deep impression made on the 
nerve centers — through which mind acts — to connect itself with the 
outer world. The physical " demonstrations ■"' I attribute to the trans- 
mission of the first named physical cause, mrve-aura — to. physical sub- 
stances and the control of that nerve-aura by the human mind, after it 
has passed to surrounding substances. In the classes of persons men- 
tioned we bring together, witches, ecstatics, convulsionists, dancers, 
jumpers, jerkers, and mediums ; and the symptoms taken as a whole 
sufficiently are alike to draw the conclusion that if one set are the work 
of spirits, all are — if one class are the work of a physical agent — a gas, 
say — then all are. Doctors reason in this way — When a person is found 
with a certain set of symptoms, we say he has taken opium, or belladonna. 
When the symptoms in another person resemble them, we say again, 
it is opium, or belladonna, or what closely resembles them in its action 
on the system. Every mineral and vegetable substance has an action 
peculiar to itself, it resembles but does not act exactly like any other 
medicine. Take a few of the symptoms of one or two well known med- 
icines. Belladonna on the sensorium ; " vertigo as though everything 
turned in a circle " " H. walks in a circle." " He imagines he sees 
ghosts, and various kinds of insects." " He talks with his late sister in 



150 A DISCUSSION. 

the church-yard,' "She sees flame before her eyes." 

" She sees a white star at the ceiling of her room — the size of a plate — 
white silvery little clouds float before it." " He sees things double, and 
multiplied," (See Sympomm Codex.) Here we find a physical sub- 
stance producing ghost-seeing, and the odic lights. The bite of the tar- 
antula produces symptoms that resemble St. Vitus' dance. The 
patients are cured by music. A case is related by a writer in the 
Medical Repository, vol. iv, of a girl bitten by a spider who was ren- 
dered clairvoyant. Her attacks were periodical. The sense of iouc/t 
was infinitely exalted. Spasms, convulsions and catalepsy attended her. 
Nearly a year after the bite the hand suppurated. A mass of black 
matter was discharged and she recovered. A person in Nelson, Portage 
Co., was bitten by a serpent. For seventeen years he had annual 
attacks of the symptoms, and at last died. Here we see poisons pro- 
ducing singular mental and periodical symptoms. 

The Rev. Mr. Clark, on visiting the Mammoth Cave, of Ky., when 
he returned to the open air lost his strength ; and smell was exalted so 
that every flower and shrub was distinguished by its odor. The cruder 
forms of matter only induce physical phenomena — while the more s%ih- 
limated forms afi"ect the senses and mental symptoms. So far as history 
furnishes the facts, the oracles of Delphi were the work of clairvoyance 
produced by medicines. The protoxide of nitrogen is a familiar exam- 
ple of the work of a very light fluid form of matter. It produces mirth 
in the mirthful — fight in the destructive — politeness in the affable. The 
vopors of mercury inhaled from water gilding, produce very difierent 
symptoms from the crude article. The entire Materia Medica furnishes 
examples of the strange physical and mental, as well as moral symptoms 
induced by difierent substances found on our globe. Now because in 
witchcraft, religious ecstacies, jerkers and mediums, we find many of 
the symptoms seen in persons who have taken belladonna, lachesis, or 
opium, we do not conclude that either of the above named class of per- 
sons has taken those articles, but that their nerves are impressed with a 
fluid capable of deeply impressing the sensorium or seat of sense and 
mind — and that these classes being numerous, and spread over the entire 
globe — whole countries — entire cities, or large localities, some agent 
must be acting capable of affecting all persons ; and in the more im- 
pressible we see its peculiar effects. If an individual should observe 
persons in New York under certain symptoms, the disease would be 
called cholera. If the same symptoms, or the prominent ones — some 
being added and others dropped — should appear in Pari?:, London, Con- 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 151 

stantinople, Pckin, the disease would be called cholera, whatever the 
cause, 01' particular poison might he, it would matter not, so far as the 
grand features of the epidemic might bo, it would be assigned to the 
same causation, or one extremely similar. 

In speaking in future of the agent operating on these persons, wc 
shall use Buchanan's term, nerve aura — as implying nerve-od. The 
od-force of Eeichenbach being general, I have used it in a general way 
to familiarize the mind with the term. Swedenborg uses the term 
sphere in a general way, to indicate that all bodies have a sphere, or 
atmosphere, or od, or aura, surrounding them. That space is filled 
with an ether or fluid, electric in its character, is pretty generally con- 
ceded by philosophers. Breathed as it is in our atmosphere in combi- 
nation with other forms of matter, its effect is modified, as that of every 
other substance is modified, by being combined with another substance. 
We have luckily a few rare chances of noticing the effects of this ether 
on the brain and nerves, breathed somewhat free from cruder matter. 
The sky-riding of Mr. Wise and M. Petin. The latter ascended from 
Bridgeport, Conn., in July, and reached an altitude of 22,000 feet. A 
hail-storm surrounded them — held in the air by an nnknown power — 
(spirits probably.) M. Petin says, " One of our companions fell asleep. 
We felt so weak that another companion and myself could hardly open 
the valve. The imagination of one exalted to such a hight grows vivid 
and warm as the body becomes dull and chilled. For us no reality, no 
limits were existing. The dreams of Bernardine and St. Pierre were 
realized — universal peace seemed to be on earth ; and the whole globe 
were united states." 

Mr. Wise, in his ascent from Bavenna during the summer, after 
riding high into the air, came down in the vicinity of Warren, Ohio. 
When at the highest altitude, he says his feelings became preternatu- 
rally exalted. A kind of transcendental ecstacy took possession of him ; 
and such were his poetic dreams of heavenly joy, that he longed for 
some one to write them down, and give them to the public, which he 
had often resolved to do ; but on descending his feelings cooled, and he 
had never had courage to tell the world all that he felt while breathing 
this highly electrical ether. Both Mr. Wise and Petin unite in the 
same symptoms, and in the electrical ethereal state of the surrounding 
medium. Who does not recognize in these symptoms the ecstatic, 
transcendental, rhapsodical, poetical, prophetical, millennial, progres- 
sional state of mind of mesmeric subjects, religious ascetics, and magnetic 
spirit-mediums ? Dr. Buchanan says of clairvoyants and mediums, 



152 A DISCUSSION. 

their communications are much alike, ecstatic — rhapsodical — " moon- 
shiny." 

The positive state of this atmospheric influence, which produces this 
epidemic magnetic state, acts mostly on women and children ; the nega- 
tive state, which produces an epidemic putrefactive state of the human 
system, acts mostly on robust men. The negative state acts mostly on 
the positive or male race ; the positive state acts mostly on women and 
children — the negative part of the race. The return of hoth states is 
periodic, and connected with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and epi- 
demic plagues and fevers. The earth, during the negative or sickly 
atmosphere, produces in great abundance ; vegetation is rank, but man 
fails from the earth ; while the positive state, or spirit-?-apping periods 
exist, vegetation is less thrifty, sickly — potato-rot becomes universal. 
These periods are seen on a large scale to be controled by tens, and 
the grand circles seem to be centuries, half-centuries, and so ranging down 
to ten again. Taking the birth of Christ as an initial point, we are surprised 
to see how many of the great events of our earth are consummated or 
begun about the beginning of each century ; the middle period fre- 
quently showing the same crisis or climax in matter and mind. 

The symptoms are not only periodic but choal in their manifestations 
On one continent we have sometimes a warm season, on the other half 
a very cold one ; on one hemisphere we have a universally feverish state 
of the body — pestilence and plague ; on the other half an intense men- 
tal activity, amounting to national fury — just like the phenomena of the 
human body under a malarious fever. One day we get a light chill, 
the next a heavy chill, following the positive and negative, and dual in 
their order — following the notes of the diatonic scale. The chill of the 
first day will correspond to that of the thu'd day ; that of the second 
day to that of the fourth ; then the third to that of the sixth, and the 
fourth to that of the eighth. They are not only diurnal but annual also 
in their return. Just so with man on a large scale. His bodily condi- 
tion at the beginning of one century will correspond to that of the next 
century, or to that of a half century. Earthquakes being periodic, as 
well as eruptions, follow the same law. Let us fix on a point or local 
eifect of this kind as a type of the whole and then thread our way 
through the facts. A statement of a few facts from history will be suf- 
ficient to show that this law oi periods has followed the race. 

At the close of the first century the Roman world was in arms, and 
the Jewish nation was literally blotted out, and Jerusalem destroyed. 
About A. D. 250, one of the periodic movements in the Northern tribes 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 153 

occurred — the Gotlis invade Ilome. A. D. 300, Constantine espouses 
Christianity, and it becomes the religion of the empire. About sixty 
years after, Julian succeeds him, and proclaims universal toleration ; 
but revives the Pagan worship throughout his dominions. Toward the 
close of the third century the Huns came rolling in the wake of the 
Groths. A. D 400, Paganism is destroyed — Alaric appouis and Rome 
is sacked. A. D. 450, Attila appears in sight, and stretches his sword 
over both empires. A. D. 550, society seemed falling into fragments, 
and a universal earthquake occurred, followed by a plague that ravaged 
the Roman world for fifty years. A. D. 600, Mahamet begins bis ca- 
reer. A. D. 800, Charlemagne founds the empire of the Franks. 
A. J). 900 to 1100, confusion prevailed; and at the opening of the 
eleventh century the first crusade occurred; in 1147 the second. 
A. D. 1200, the fourth crusade began ; and the Grreek empire was 
founded, and Zingis Khan invades China. About 1350, the Ottoman 
empire rose ; and Tamerlane appears. About 1450, the Turks take 
Constantinople. A. D. 1500, or nearly, Columbus discovered America. 
For a short time let us return to periods of disease. Dr. Kerner 
says that in a mountain village of Grermany, St. Vitus' dance becomes 
epidemic, attended with sleep and clairvoyance. He adds that, in the 
valley below, the people have malarious ague. This is a sample only, 
but is a type of two forms of epidemics — the one mental, the other phys- 
ical ; but between these lies a disease called influenza, which commonl}'- 
ushers in the febrile form of disease. The magnetic form sometimes pre- 
cedes, sometimes follows. Plague and yellow fever will be in one locality, 
andjerkings; convulsions in an adjoining location. Plague, and all 
violent epidemics, follow eruptions and earthquakes. Noah Webster, at 
the close of the epidemic of 1800, wrote on this subject. Here are the 
facts. "Between B. C. 480 and the Cbristian Era, a number of vio- 
lent plagues occurred, most of which coincided in time with these phe- 
nomena, comets, earthquakes, eruption of volcanoes, drouth, severe 
winters, diseases among cattle. Of thirteen comets during that time,, 
dght coincide with eruptions of Etna, and eleven with pestilence." All 
great plagues have been attended with violent disturbance of the ele- 
ments. The facts he says are confirmed by the plagues that accurred 
in the following eras : A. D. 80, 167, 252, 375, 400, 445, 542, 552^, 
590, 639, 679, 682, 745, 762, 802, 905, 994, 1005, 1031, 1044, 1069, 
1106, 1135, 1142, 1162, llSl, 1222, 1242, 1300, 1347,1368, 1400,, 
1477, 1500, 1531, 1577, 1602, 1625, 1636, 1665, 1699,1709, 1719, 
1728, 1743, 1751, 1760, 1770, 1783, 1789. Of these fifty plagues,. 



154 A 13ISCUSSI0N. 

thirty occurred near the beginning and the middle of each century. The 
whole seems ranged nearly on a scale of ten, ranging from that point 
up to one hundred. He says : " The phenomenon most nearly con- 
nected with pestilence is an earthquake. I question whether an instance 
of a considerable plague can he found not preceded or accompanied vfith. 
an earthquake." Ail places shaken are not visited. The region is 
sometimes contiguous. Take America — earthquakes have occurred in 
the following years: 1638, 1647, 1658, 1662-3,1668,1727,1735, 
1783. Slight shocks seem to usher in epidemics — either measles, influ- 
enza, sore throat— as in 1669, 1720, 1737, 1757, 1761, 1769, 1771, 
1791, 1797. 

Volcanic eruptions seem next nearly connected with epidemic sick- 
ness. Cold winters are preceded or followed by eruptions, as in 1776, 
1779, 1783, were followed by intense cold wintei'S. The severe winters 
of 1762-3, 1779 and 1780, were followed by eruptions. When erup- 
tions are continued for a number of years, if it becomes intense, a se- 
vere winter follows. Etna was in eruption from 1664 to '69. In '69 
the disturbance was severe ; a cold winter followed. In some cases a 
severe winter extends to both hemispheres — sometimes only one. Thus 
in 1607-8, in '83-4, in 1762-3, in '66-7, in '79-80, in 1739 and '40, 
the severe winters extended to both hemispheres. In ] 640-41 , 1739-40, 
and other instances, preceded by one year in Europe a similar winter in 
America. These facts show the changes on the air and elements 
around us. 

Comets also attend pestilence, and severe winters. Large comets 
■ are seen to produce great heat, drouth followed by cold winters, swell 
•of the tides, storms of wind and hail, and volanic eruptions. The drouths 
■of 1762 and 1782 preceded eruptions of Etna and Hecla. The years 
when eruptions, earthquakes and comets appear, or the atmosphere is 
^^ery, meteors, streams of light, mock suns, &c., are beyond comparison 
-the most tempestuous. 

Those periods are most sickly in which the eruptions and earthquakes 
■are most violent. From 1631 to 1637 three of the most noted volca- 
noes discharged immense quantities of lava. Pestilence prevailed over 
Europe and America. The same remark holds good of the years 1663 
and 1666, when Europe was desolated with pestilence, the most fatal 
ever known. Also from the year 1691 to 1786, all the plagues occur- 
ring show the same connection with volcanoes. Influenza and plague 
'©ftea appear just before an earthquake. 



RICHMOND AND ERITTAN. 155 

In the masterly work of Mr. Webster he shows that the order of 
these occurrences is regular — first influenza, then measles, anguina, 
small-pox, yellow fever, plague — advancing from mild to fatal. He at- 
tributes, of course, the first to the electric or highly stimulating effects 
of the atmosphere. The last have local causes combined with them. 
Local epidemics are most commonly dysentery, agues, yellow fever and 
plague. "What alarmed Mr. Webster's readers and reviewers was that 
he adopted the doctrine of " equivocal generation," to account for the 
vast accumulation of musketoes, flies, worms, fish and insects, during 
the putrefactive periods. Dr. Priestly writes to Dr. Mitchell, saying 
that such a theory would show that Man might have originated in the 
same way — and exhorts to its abandonment, as unscriptioral. Is it to 
be supposed that our race can breathe an atmosphere so afiected by 
earthquakes and eruptions without inducing a variety of mental, moral, 
and physical symptoms, when Messrs. Wise and Petin are so strangely 
afiected by a few hours' residence in the air 20,000 feet above our 
globe .'' No one will pretend it. 

I will cite a few cases from ancient history : A. D. 360, in the reign 
of Valentinian and Valens, an earthquake shook the Roman world. — 
(See Gibbon, vol iii, ch. 1.) During the reign of the same emperors, 
Zasinius states that a disease appeared among the people. " They 
acted strangely, and vastly more were effected than were known. Some 
miracles were wrought ; and the emperor became a magnetic physician, 
curing disease by varous strange methods." — (See Godwin's Lives of 
the Necromancers.) This was, beyond doubt, a magnetic epidemic. 

A. D. 542, or nearly, another earthquake convulsed the globe. In 
the fifth year of Justinian, a comet appeared ; eight years after, anoth- 
er ; and the people predicted war^, pestilence and famine. Plague soon 
appeared near Pelusium, between the Serbonian bog and the eastern 
channel of the Nile. It spread over Syria, Persia, and India, and west 
along the coast of Africa, and over the continent of Europe. Constan- 
tinople fell a prey to its ravages. Says Gibbon, vol. iv, p. 294 : " The 
infection was sometimes announced by the visions of a distempered fancy ^ 
and the victim despaired as soon as he heard the menace, and 
felt the stroke of an invisible specter." But the greater number at 
work, or in bed, were surprised by a slight fever. Swellings began, and 
death followed in a few hours, or days. Vast swarms of locusts had bred 
in the African &and — died, and rotted ; and now the human race lay 
above ground, dead, rotting in vast heaps. The femak was less susr^pt- 
ble than the mak, while youth was the most perilous season. Such was 



156 A DISCUSSION. 

the desolation that some of the fairest portions of the globe were de- 
populated. 

A. J). 1373 the dancers appeared in Flanders. A. D. 1688 France 
was deluged with a convulsive disease ; and about the close of 1700, the 
"West was flooded with the jerkers, in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 
Multitudes of other instances might be cited— but suffice it by saying 
that all these forms of diseases are connected, and coincide with phys- 
ical disturbances of the earth. Hildreth, in his -American History^ tells 
us that just before the landing of the Pilgrims, New-England was swept 
of her Idian tribes by a pestilence. Again, (H. A. H., vol 1, p. 327,) 
in 1647 an epidemic influenza ravaged the colonies. Indians, Dutch, 
French, and English were alike seized ; and its mortality was frightful. 
A. D. 1675 Philip's war began. Omens became general, and added to 
the horror of the hour. Indian hows were seen in the clouds, and 
scalps in the moon ; unseen horsemen galloped through the air ; and 
ranks of mounted warriors rode among the clouds. A. J). 1688 witch- 
craft began, and up to near 1700 the colonies were in a state of frenzy — 
" spectral illusions," ghosts in league with the Devil were seen on all 
hands, accompanied by trance, convulsions, and various other symptoms. 
Aff'ected persons barked like dogs, purred like cats, were dumb, deaf, 
&c. About 1700 Boston was visited with a pestilential fever, and sick- 
ness generally prevailed. 

About 1740 another form of mental excitement occurred — the new 
lights appeared — and a bare glance at history, shows the public mind in 
a feverish unusual state. New-York city partook of the fury. Some 
negroes were suspected of setting fires to buildings ; and the city ran 
mad — and a ferment was apparentt in every departmen of society. The 
Indian tribes were in motion ; and Pontiac, connecting the vast tribes 
from Montreal to Mackinaw, fell like an avalanche on the defenceless 
whites. 

Near the year 1800, yellow fever appeared It spread from Maine 
to Mexico, and even South America, while the West, near the same date, 
was visited with jerkers and visions. A wide spread influenza ushered 
in the fever ; and man failed from the earth, while the earth itself 
bloomed with perennial beauty ; vegetation was rank and green— the 
trees blossomed and bore fruit — and blossomed again Two crops 
appeared of some kinds. Pork and fish spoiled in vast quantities. In 
New- York the rivers and marshes teemed with insects and flies — the 
earth with worms. Isolated pools of stagnant water became filled with 
eels, which gave rise to "Webster's bold speculation of " equivocal gen- 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 157 

eration." The filth of cities fermented. All who were connected with 
the makings vending^ or use of soap ^ sickened and died — the same is true 
in plague ; while those who worked in grease and oil escaped.* France 
at the same time was in an opposite state. Mental frenzy raged with 
violence till the "reign of terror" ushered in Napoleon, who hushed 
the rude storm into steady streams of death. The earth shook — volca- 
noes belched — meteors Mazed in the heavens — the clouds were fiery ; 
hail and storm, and tempest chimed in to fill up the wild notes that 
seemed to mingle into one grand funeral dirge, chanted to sooth a sick 
and mourning world. 

This is no fancy. Read the history of the times, and it will appear 
more than real. Open the Medical Repository^ published by Dr. Mit- 
chell in 1800, 1, 2, 3, 4, and trace the history of those years. And 
now, fifty years from the putrefactive state of 1800, we have a return 
of what appeared in 1750, and up to the Revolution, with additions and 
variations. France is revolving in the old orbit — revolution, republic, 
and empire. And still more follows. " Spirit-rappings " can not be 
humbugged down ; for they are to me the Macrocos7n, acting on the 
microcosm — the loorld without disturli'ng the world tvithin. Unlike the 
period of 1800, when the earth was teeming with vegetable and animal 
life, we have had a sicJdy state of the soil that has blasted the potato- 
crops with fever ; and other vegetation has appeared sickly. The 
whole globe has felt slight tremblings ; Etna begins to tremble — the 
plague appears in Europe, and is rolling slowly toward our shores. 
The laws of matter do not change — pestilence follows fast on the heels 
of the spirits, who, instead of being witches in league with the devil, 
are our friends, they say, come to abolish sin and " vote in the millen- 
nium." 

" The angel of death spread his wing on the blast. 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed." 

Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 

* See Appendix, Note S. 



REPLY TO DR. RICHMOND. 

LETTER XII. 

Dear Sir : In your previous letters you did indeed group a variety 
of physical and mental phenomena, and, as I thought, in a manner that 
violated all laws of affinity; each seemed to be in strange company and with- 
out any disposition to associate with the others. You did not then claim a 
unity of causation. We need go no further back than the letter next 
preceding the one under review, to find that your philosophy admitted 
a whole legion of causes. Some of the phenomena were referred to the 
Irish od-force, and the remarkable " vibrations of the tune " pei'formed 
by a medium at High Rock, while other facts depended on charging the 
table with electricity, in a manner which involves an impossibility. The 
magnetic sleep, clairvoyance, imagination and fanaticism, were presumed 
to be the chief causes in a great number of instances. Some manifes- 
tations were caused by fits, by ' a large organ of spectral illusion,' ' ob- 
structed catamenia,' the ' leaping ague,' ' eating warm bread,' neurolog- 
ical experiments and surgical operations. Other things — objects, con- 
ditions and circumstances — have been referred to in your letters as 
operative causes, but their number precludes further enumeration. Now, 
strange as it may appear, at the very opening of your last letter it is 
gravely said that, " no serious attempt will be made to deny the identity 
of cause " in all that motley group of facts. After assuming more 
causes than you have written letters, you now assert one cause ! Not 
content to claim a strong similitude in phenomenal appearances and pro- 
ductive causes, you at once resolve the multifarious forces and agents, 
hitherto employed in their individual capacity, into one and the same 
thing. Mysterious change, from infinite multiplicity and variety to the 
simplest unity ! Your causes are extremely obliging, since they come in 
vast numbers at your behest, and peaceably retire when you have done 
with them. They are potent or powerless as yoit please, and will per- 
form double service or employ the time in rest and recreation, as may 
best accord with your personal convenience. And by this singular 
species of intellectual jugglery all facts are made to suit your purpose 
equally well. 

In your second paragraph you refer " dreaming, visions, ghost-seeing," 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 159 

etc., to ' the action of mind on mind,' and yet after thus referring these 
mental effects to mental causes, you go on to speak, in the same con- 
nection, of a variety of physical symptoms exhibited among the media, 
such as involuntary dancing, jumping, jerking, convulsions, &c., and 
conclude that, ' if the one class of phenomena are the work of a physical 
agent, all are;' and this novel amusement, of asserting premises and 
contradicting them in your conclusions, is kept up ad lihihhm. Thus we 
have Dr. Richmond against himself, and it is not easy to determine 
which side has the merits of the argument. The affirmative appears to 
be very negative with respect to direct proofs^ while the negative is 
extremely positive in absolute assertions. 

You next proceed to give us further information respecting the way 
"Doctors reason." Certain symptoms are presumed to infallibly indi- 
cate the presence and operation of certain vegetable poisons. But med- 
ical men must be aware that a variety of symptomatic phenomena, common 
to several diseases, are comprehended in diagnostics, while such as are 
supposed to distinguish the specific form of disease, and the peculiar 
action of certain remedial agents, are perpetually modified by a variety 
of mental and temperamental conditions. It may be conceded that 
various symptoms, physical and mental, are produced by the adminis- 
tration of opium and deadly nightshade, but this will not account for the 
occurrence of other phenomena that do not depend on the presence and 
action of these agents. Nor does the similarity of such phenomena, in 
some of their phases, prove the cause to be identical. A violent blow 
in the region of the occiput will occasion a pain in the head, and enable 
a person to see stars by daylight, but there are, nevertheless, stars that 
have an objective existence, and headache may result from a number of 
other causes. The inspiration of carbonic acid gas will destroy animal 
life, but it does not thence follow that all dead men have inhaled this 
gas, or that physical dissolution invariably depends on a similar cause. 
It is said that belladonna produces vertigo, and that H. — I know not 
who is referred to — "imagines he sees ghosts and various kinds of 
insects," while his sister " sees a white star on the ceiling of her room ;" 
and, as this vegetable poison will ' produce these effects ' — we accept 
the fact on the authority of my correspondent — will cause the patient to 
see ghosts, etc., therefore, we are required to infer that there are no real 
ghosts, or, in other words, that the spirits of the departed never appear 
to mortals. But the same logic would authorize the inference that 
insects do not exist objectively, and that there are no stars except in the^ 
brains of those who take belladonna and are subject to vertigo. Whether- 



160 A DISCUSSION. 

the mode of reasoning as described by you, and especially as illustrated 
by so many practical examples, is calculated to support the claims of 
the faculty to a high degree of logical acumen, I may now venture to 
leave to the reader's decision. 

The acute sensation of Mr. Clarke, on his egress from Mammoth 
Cave, is easily explained. He had been for some time in a pure atmo- 
sphere, entirely free from all odors, and, on his coming again into the 
open air, the perfumes of flowers and aromatic plants were perceived 
with unusual distinctness. You have only to leave the open air and 
enter the room of one of your patients, where spirits of ammonia has 
been used an hour before to perceive it distinctly, while those who oc- 
cupy the apartment do not experience the slightest sensation. 

That clairvoyance was employed in the oracular responses, heard in 
the temple of Apollo at Delphos, is extremely probable, but the admis- 
sion of the probability affords no countenance to the views you entertain 
respecting the sourcft of the Manifestations. 

Nothing further is required to account for the intense emotions ol 
Messrs. Petin and Wise — whose experience in nowise sustains your 
hypothesis — than the peculiar circumstances which surrounded them. 
The rarefied state of the atmosphere, at an altitude of 22,000 feet, com- 
bined with the novelty and sublimity of the scene and situation, would 
be quite sufl&cient to excite the imagination to unusual activity, and to 
induce a state of great mental exaltation. 

You next affirm that positive and negative periods of the earth and 
atmosphere succeed each other in regular alternation, and the alleged 
effects of these opposite states are thus distinctly assumed : " The earth, 
during the negative or sickly atmosphere, produces in great abundance ; 
vegetation is rank, but man fails from the earth ; while the positive 
state, or spirit-rapping periods exist, vegetation is less thrifty, sickly — 
potato-rot becomes universal." The earth is here said to produce in 
greater abundance during the negative state — vegetation being more 
luxuriant. Now the truth is exactly the reverse of your statement. 
Whenever the growth of vegetation is unusually large, as it is in warm, 
wet seasons, the atmosphere will be highly electrical, and this fact will 
be indicated by the frequent occurrence of storms accompanied by 
electrical phenomena, often of a startling and tcrriffic character. When 
thunder-storms are less frequent and the season is cold, there is less 
vegetation. But the incorrectness of your proposition is already dem- 
onstrated in another way. It is proved by actual experiment that elec- 
tricity greatly facilitates the growth of plants, hence the positive pe- 



RICHMOND AND BRITTAN. 161 

riods must be far more favorable to excessive vegetation. During "the 
positive state or spirit-rapping periods, vegetation " is said to be "less 
thrifty and potato-rot becomes universal." But was there never a 
really positive state of things until within the last twelve years .? If 
there was, pray tell us whether that season was signalized by spirit- 
rappings, and were the potatoes diseased ? And if this disease and the 
rappings go together, and are dependent on the same cause, namely, 
the positive state of the earth and air, why have the rappings increased 
with such rapidity during the last three years, while the potatoes are 
acknowledged to be convalescent ? 

Your attempt to adapt the chills and fever to music strikes me as 
highly original and entertaining, and it may render the trilling or shak- 
ingj in which the patients are said to excel, much more artistic and 
agreeable to the performers. This " diatonic scale " in fever and ague 
is the last, if not the most brilliant, discovery of modern physical sci- 
ence. Moreover, the announcement that ' earthquakes and volcanoes, 
being periodic, follow the same law ' must, it is apprehended, take 
the world by surprise. 

Several important occurrences recorded in history, are next intro- 
duced. This portion of your letter comprehends, among other remark- 
able events, the destruction of Jerusalem ; invasion of Rome by the 
Groths ; conversion of Constantine ; general toleration under Julian ; 
revival of Pagan worship ; conquest of Hungary by the Huns ; reign of 
Vandalism ; advent of Mahomet ; the Crusades ; invasion of China, 
and so on to the end of the chapter, which terminates with the discovery 
of America. The date of each of these events is given, which must 
render the whole very convenient for reference. 

Then follows an elaborate account of the appearance of thirteen com- 
ets, the yellow fever, measles and jerkings, with influenza, numerous 
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, together with Jifiy plagues, all ar- 
ranged in chronological order. 

" Angels and ministers of grace defend ns !" 

Oh, Doctor ! I little thought, when, I consented to follow you, that you: 
world lead me into such perilous places and then leave me, as you are 
now about to do, to find my way out of this wilderness of terrors. 

My friend will pardon me if I do not treat bis letter very gravely. I 
find nothing that calls for argument or aught that will admit of serious 
reply. The larger portion consists of a reproduction of the first treatise 
on earthquakes and volcanoes, with the alleged coincidental occurrence 

11 

/ 



A DISCUSSION. 



of epidemic diseases. Should the demand for the work warrant a third 
edition, permit me to suggest that the addition of a chronological ac- 
count of the principal Indian wars, since the landing of the Puritans, 
would constitute an interesting feature ; and, now that I think of it, the 
election returns might reflect some light on the general subject. 

I have thus finished my review of the twelve letters written in illus- 
tration of your several material hypotheses. Others must determine 
how far the subject has been treated in a becoming manner. In con- 
clusion, I deem it proper to observe that, if I have occasionally indulged 
in a playful or satirical remark, it has been because the nature of the 
case did not afibrd a suitable occasion for sober disquisition. In the 
direct investigation of the Spiritual phenomena, however, I yet hope to 
find materials for earnest and solemn thought. Amid much that is 
confessedly chaotic in its nature, and doubtful in its origin, I expect to 
find many beautiful evidences of the immortal nature and relations of 
man. The subject, as it presents itself to my mind, is quick with the 
inspiration of a new life, with the power of a lively hope, a living faith, 
and a present resurrection. Humanity feels a new impulse and heaven- 
ward aspirations, like grateful incense, perpetually ascend from many 
devout and prayerful spirits. I remain, yours fraternally, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



BSITTAN AND EICHMOI^D'S DISCUSSION. 

QuEbTioN— Do those who have departed this life still continue to hold inter- 
course with those who yet remain on earth ? 

NTJMBfiR ONE. 

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

Dear Sir : In the first part of our controversy I have been required 
to discuss your views rather than my own, and to analyze such facts 
only as you have thought proper to introduce, in your endeavors to 
illustrate the mundane origin of the Manifestations. But our relations 
to the question are now changed, and it becomes my privilege to culti- 
vate a more intimate acquaintance and fellowship with the real subject 
at issue. The facts introduced by you, with few exceptions, have been 
of a mixed character, and the result of disturbed physical and mental 
conditions. I do not question your privilege to select examples accom- 
panied by such phenomenal aspects as leave the mind in doubt respect- 
ing their origin as well as their import. But in pursuing this policy 
you have not fortified your own position or otherwise impaired the claims 
of the Spiritual idea. I think it will not even be pretended that you 
have met the chief difficulties in the way of your hypothesis, or so 
much as attempted, by any means recognized among logicians, to dis- 
pose of the real facts. Indeed, several of the more important classes 
of the Manifestations have been scarcely referred to in the course of 
your twelve letters, while the very examples introduced to sustain and 
enforce your views have often proved to be utterly hostile to your 
claims, and absolutely fatal to the material philosophy, inasmuch as they 
are perceived to contradict the very laws whereon they were presumed 
to depend. 

Before proceeding to a classification of such particular phenomena as 
are deemed illustrative of Spiritual agency, I desire to ofiier some pre- 
liminary observations involving a statement of certain general facts and 
principles which, to my mind, afibrd strong presumptive evidence that 
spirits are concerned in the presentation of these occult mysteries. A 
very superficial inquiry into the laws of material nature, and the capa- 
city of the more imponderable elements will suffice to satisfy any sensi- 



164 A DISCUSSION 

ble man that these potential agents, if left to themselves, never move 
agremlly to any mental formula that we may he phased to dictate. It ia 
only when their natural action is interrupted, by the intervention of 
some mechanical or other means, designed to adapt them to specific pur- 
poses, that they can be made to conform to our individual desires. 
Throughout the grand arcana of Nature they are free and everywhere 
visible in their eiFects ; but those effects are not immediate expressions of 
thought and volition. The solar rays, the pale moonlight and the glim- 
mering of the distant stars, observe no such authority, nor are they 
direct transcriptions from an intelligence like that which governs the 
voluntary functions of our bodies and determines the nature of our pur- 
suits. The winds blow and their wild music echoes through the silvan 
arcades ; and when the storm gathers, the tall masts and the giant oaks 
quiver like the strings of a delicate lyre. But the winds heed not the 
mariner's prayer, and when at length the voice of the tempest is sub- 
dued, and gradually dies away in countless diminucndoes among the 
forest boughs and the ocean caves, it is not silenced at our bidding, but 
because the restless elements have found their equilibrium. The mag- 
net attracts the steel, but it will not attract a cork in the same manner. 
This power will not come and go at our request, nor is it rendered more 
or less potent by the exercise of our will. Electricity descends in fatal 
shafts from the ethereal depths and circulates through the solid globe, 
causing the metalic nerves of the mountains to vibrate, the earth to 
quake, and cities to tumble into ruins ; but neither in these terrible phe- 
nomena, nor in any of its silent movements, does it conform to the 
action of our minds. Thus light, air, magnetism and electricity, ob- 
serve their own eternal laws. They never deviate from the peculiar 
modes which characterize their operations, either to gratify an idle cu- 
riosity or to save an empire from destruction. This is true of all the 
essential principles and refined essences in being. When not directly 
controled by some voluntary mental or spiritual effort, they obey the 
original impulsion communicated to them by the Creator. 

It will be perceived from the foregoing considerations that the im- 
ponderable substances, wherein the great forces of Nature are generated, 
never yield to our requests nor regard the action of our minds ; and this 
fact is so universally acknowledged that, to even suggest the possibility 
of holding a colloquy with the unconscious elements referred to, would 
be deemed prima facie evidence that reason had lost the empire of the 
mind. He who should question the winds and expect them to answer 
positively or negativ^ely, by blowing toward the north or the south, 



BRITTAN AND PJCHMOND. 165 

would be regarded as a foor lunatic^ and yet this is no more absurd tban 
to expect electrieitj to discharge itself disruptivdy ^ and in such a man- 
ner as to keep. up an intelligent conversation. Moreover, it is equally 
absurd to conjecture that the od-force, or magnetism, can attract min- 
eral, vegetable and animal substances in a similar manner, or that these 
agents possess the capacity to disclose the thoughts of men, to reveal 
the secrets of the past, or to predict future events. To ascribe all or 
any of these powers to the thoughtless, insensible and unorganized ele- 
ments, is to assume that intelligent phenomena may proceed from unin- 
telligent sources, or, in other words, that effects may transcend their 
causes by a difference as vast as that which distinguishes the lower 
realms of matter from the higher spheres of mind. We are forced to 
discard all such ideas for the simple reason that they violate the common 
judgment of mankind. 

These observations are deemed sufficient to establish the fact,that the 
more remarkable phenomena known as the Spiritual Manifestations 
wholly transcend the capacity of mere material causes, and can, there- 
fore, only be referred to intelligence. The invisible powers obviously 
possess, among other attributes of a subtile spirituality, a superhuman 
perception of our inmost thoughts ; a surprising knowledge of past events, 
and distant objects and occurrences ; a mysterious influence over the 
principles of life and thought, as illustrated in the vital and mental phe- 
nomena of human beings in all ages ; a power to paralyze the body, to 
arrest disease, and to suspend and restore the use of the senses and the 
exercise of the mind. They move our senses from within, and mystic 
voices break the silence and echo through the unsearchable depths of 
our being. They shut up the Avindows of the spirit and darken all the 
mental horizon, and then great thoughts are written in flaming chaimc- 
ters which flash througb the gloom, vividly as lightnings gleam in the 
midnight sky. They withdraw the vail that conceals the interior world, 
and living men, entranced like the Revelator, are ' borne away in the 
spirit ' to scenes of unclouded splendor and supernal magnificence. They 
influence the elements and hold in subjection the laws of physical nature 
as mortals have never done. That these phenomena immeasurably 
transcend the utmost power of all material forces is self-evident to the 
humblest capacity, and that they do not depend on the unassisted 
action of minds in the body, is a truth, which, in my judgement, is sus- 
ceptible of the clearest demonstration. I shall do what my limited time, 
space and abilities will allow, to place this point beyond reasonable con- 
troversy. 



166 A DISCUSSION. 

I will now invite jour attention to a cardinal fact which careless 
observers overlook, notwithstanding its profound importance. It is well 
known, that the agents employed in the manifestations are accustomed to 
give the same general account of themselves wherever the phenomenal 
exhibitions occur. Invariably, so far as my knowledge extends, they 
claim to be Spirits, and utterly refuse to acknowledge any other name or 
character. This I must regard as a most significant fact. The accounts 
they give of their conditions in the other life, and their designs in visit- 
ing our sphere, appear to be modified, in some instances, by the personal 
peculiarities of the media, and the preconceived opinions and prejudices 
of the persons m whose presence the phenomena transpire. But on the 
one most essential point there exists a universal concurrence in the tes- 
timony of the invisible powers. When Dr. Taylor wrote, under the im- 
pression that his arm was moved by " detached vitalized electricity," the 
power itself claimed to be spiritual. Our friend of the Tribune, who is 
not entirely satisfied whether it is mesmerism, clairvoyance, delusion, 
spirits or all of these combined, yet receives the unqualified assurance 
that the unseen actors are veritable spirits and nothing else. When Dr. 
Richmond goes to investigate, believing the agency to be od-force, psy- 
chology, deception, electricity, magnetism, vacuum, nervous irritability, 
hysteria, insanity, or some other principle of his faith and philosophy 
not now remembered, I desire you to notice that the mysterious visit- 
ants still affirm that they are spirits. Send the priest of the parish who 
knows — of course he knows — that it is all Witchcraft and the Devil, and 
the invisible presence at once comes forward and ventures to confront 
even the parson, by preferring the same claims as before. A thousand 
newspaper editors, who are sure it is all jugglery, are powerless to extort 
any such confession from the actors behind the screen. And is not this 
singular pertinacity wholly irreconcilable with the hypothesis that 
ascribes the responses to embodied minds .? 

The fact just stated is of fundamental import, and must be admitted 
to have an intimate bearing on the present issue. It is manifestly 
adverse to aU the speculations of Materialism and stamps as legitimate 
the claims of the Manifestations to a Spiritual origin. That the facts 
everywhere disclose the diversified operations of mind, is apparent to all 
observers, and this truth may be no less conspicuous in ignorant and 
false communications, than in those of an intelligent and reliable char- 
acter. The controlling power is obviously homogenous with that which 
determines our own thought and volition. It perceives and remembers ; 
it approves or disapproves ; it reasons and understands ; it exercises 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 167 

faith, hope and chanty, and expresses sympathy, joy and devotion. No 
rational man who has devoted a single hour to the investigation, under 
favorable circumstances, will deny this, or attempt to resist the convic- 
tion that the whole affair, in its genuine phenomenal aspects, bears this 
striking resemblance to the operations of mind as illustrated in our own 
experience. And yet, it is abundantly evident that the intelligence is 
not in, or of, ourselves. Among the reasons which warrant this infer- 
ence I have only space to note the following : 

1 . In numerous instances the disclosures transcend the utmost capa- 
city of our minds and the present limit of all merely human attainments. 
Many interesting facts are communicated, before unknown, and partic- 
ular events are announced previous to their occurrence. 

2. The mental power as exhibited in the Spiritual phenomena is, in 
many veritable cases, independent of, and opposed to, the action of our 
own minds. This is evident fii-om the fact that the results are often at 
war with our earnest thought and intense desire. The invisible intelli- 
gence not unfrequently disputes our deepest convictions, it subverts the 
strongest will, and subjects many persons to a severe discipline that mor- 
tifies their pride, and perhaps openly rebukes then' evil passions and 
unrighteous deeds. 

3. It acts on unorganized matter mysteriously and powerfully. The 
mind in its earthly relations can not produce so much as the feeblest 
semblance of these marvelous effects, and I hazard nothing in saying 
that, it yet remains for the unassisted human will to furnish the first 
illustration of such a power in the whole history of the world. 

But I desire to enforce in a still more emphatic manner the only con- 
clusion, respecting the origin of the phenomena, that is at all compati- 
ble with the fact that the unseen actors, everywhere and on all occasions, 
claim to be spirits. This fact, if I do not over-estimate its importance, 
must preclude the acceptance of even the most plausible earthly theory. 
If the so-called Spiritual Manifestations are, in all cases, the offspring 
of embodied minds, it is but reasonable to infer that they represent the 
ideas entertained by such minds. When we speak or write, we are 
accustomed to express our own views and not those of another, and 
should the mind adopt any other mode of communication, the instru- 
mentalities employed would doubtless yield to its action and become the 
exponents of its living thought. If the medium were the source of the 
intelligence, or if the responses were delivered by some member of the 
circle, they would not only be limited by the knowledge of that person, 
but would precisely conform to his idea. Now the genuine facts of the. 



168 A DISCUSSION. 

Manifestations — and we shall aim to treat of no other in the present 
series — do not exhibit this conformity , as I will prove by reference to 
specific examples whenever the evidence shall be demanded. At pres- 
ent I need not occupy my limited space and the reader's attention, by 
a citation of particular cases, when no candid and intelligent man will 
venture to dispute the position. If the intermediate agent, employed 
in the production of the Spiritual phenomena, were left to the direction 
of minds in the body, it would render such an account of its name and 
nature, in the diiferent circles, as would best accord with the precon- 
ceived ideas of the company. It is impossible to disguise this fact for 
a moment. Either the combined mental force of the circle, the will of 
the medium, or some positive intellect present, would determine the re- 
sult in every instance. If the controling mind entertained the idea 
that the phenomena were merely electrical vibrations, resulting from 
human volition or some incidental circumstance, the peculiar claims of 
the mysterious power would correspond to these impressions. If the 
people believed it to be all jugglery, the agent would so decide ; and in 
all eases it would express the internal conviction, or obey the executive 
function, of the mind. But instead of this easy conformity to the pre- 
dominant idea, it persists in telling the same story on all occasions. I 
insist that this fact constitutes a sufficient refutation of the hypothesis 
that ascribes the veritable Manifestations to the action of embodied 
minds, and I ask for it that deliberate regard which its profound signifi- 
cance demands. 

Having occupied the space allotted to this letter, I will now briefly 
conclude. In my next I shall endeavor to commence a classification of 
the Spiritual phenomena. In attempting to sustain the position that 
departed spirits do hold intercourse with men on earth, I am supported 
by the experience of many noble and gifted minds, in all ages, and, in 
a most essential sense, by the common faith of the world. 

Earnestly desiring that the truth may be honored, by a candid hear- 
ing and a practical conformity to its requirements, I remain. 

Yours fraternaUy, S. B. BRITTAN. 



REPLY TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

NUMBER ONE. 

My Dear Sir : A friend of mine once expressed a great preference 
for Episcopal meetings over all others because there he had a chance to 
"jaw back." This is now my privilege in the discussion. I have but 
just received your " preliminary observations," and begin my replies 
with something of the same sort. Engaged as I am in the vpractice of 
medicine in a country place — in a muddy region and a fickle climate — 
I am constantly beset with interruptions that none but the most stnhlorn 
mint could endure. The time demanded by this subject for invenHga- 
tion and arrangement I can not command, and I must, in my replies, 
follow at a respectful distance, beset by the same difficulties. 

I must notice, in passing, a few thoughts in jout last four replies. I 
find the remark in number nine that " od-foree preaches on Sundays, 
and edits newspapers." On this point you either misunderstand dr mis- 
represent my views. You attempt to involve what I ha;ve said on od- 
force and vital electricity in confusion, and the term " materialism " is 
constantly repeated to sustain the idea that no higher intelligence is in- 
dicated in my theory of these manifestations, than those agents. You 
gravely argue this point in your opening on the affirmative. In this 
course you are doing yourself great injustice. In a large majority of 
the phenomena, an intelligence is clearly admitted, and in all such facts 
I constantly maintain the agency of the human mind, and only mention 
these agents as the instruments used by the mind. A very few physical 
facts can be already explained by attraction and vaculim, and in many 
ot that class of facts I see mind acting where others see none. 

I use the term involuntary will-force — you plainly recognize an invol- 
untary mental movement in your observations. The laws of gravity 
may be overcome by mere physical agents — but mind is constantly 
engaged in overcoming these laws, and is designed for that very pur- 
pose. 

You ask me if I expect to "achieve an honorable distinction'''' by 
writing what I have : I can only say that I care infinitely less than 



170 A DISCUSSION. 

nothing about that. One hundred and fifty years since the whole civil- 
ized world was imputing witchcraft to the Devil. No intelligent man 
now would seriously advocate that nonsense. Judge Story once 
exclaimed, " Let Witch Iliil remain forever memorable of this 
sad catastrophe — not to perpetuate our dishonor, hut as an affecting^ 
enduring proof of human infirmity.'''' A century hence the theory you 
teach will, in my humble judgment, elicit the same apostrophe. I 
can wait very patiently that length of time. I am not in a hurry to get 
a verdict in my favor. I am not aware, as you charge, of having " mod- 
ified and mutilated " Reichenbach's Dynamics. Will you inform me 
wherein .? 

In alluding to authorities^ you make quite a show. You introduce 
authorities, great names, and the opinions of great men. I only quote 
authorities for facts. You must be aware that at the close of the seven- 
teenth century the entire literary world advocated Demonology and 
Witchcraft. Doctors, lawyers, divines, judges, crowned-heads, and 
congressmen, all agreed. You and I can see their folly — and laugh at 
the great men. Herodotus once taught that the sun was Mown out of 
its course by high winds, which accounted for its change of position. A 
grave philosopher once taught that lightning struck churches more than 
all other huild'mgs— because the devil owed them a spile, and split his 
infenlal fire on their lofty spires. Bacon died a determined opponent 
of the Copernican system — but he had done more to build it up by his 
discoveries than ail the world beside. The English judges, from Coke 
to Hale, gravely consigned men and women to the flames for the crimes 
of sorcery — and of what use, then, are the mere opinions of great men .'^ 
Give doctors a fat fee, and senators an appropriation, and they will go 
to the bottom of it — but on matters of a Spiritual nature they are singu- 
lar specimens of human credulity. In this connection, in your tenth 
reply, you again attempt to argue that I attribute all the phenomena to 
vital electricity — or od-force — and think it strange that Mr. Gordon 
should fiy, by such a force. The eagle, by will-force, so rarifies the od- 
force of his body as to rise high into the air — even beyond sight. Gor- 
don will do that very thing if he is not cautious. Cotton Mather says 
of the New-England witches, " They would fiy like geese, and be carried 
along with incredible swiftness, having but just their toes on the ground — 
sometimes owt in twenty feet— and their arms waved like the wings of a 
bird." This application of will-force to the human body is certainly 
singular — it is putting on some steam. Take care of friend Gordon. 

In your eleventh reply you attempt to break the force of Mr. Davis 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 171 

and the Tribune's facts, that " Irish od-force," did, by the aid of 
mind, smash the bedstead. So says the seer. High Rock was once the 
residence of a grand sorcerer, called Moll Pitcher. May it not be her 
work .' The Irish girl had an impulse to sing — her mind seizes the 
vital fluid, impels it from the lungs, the air is driven with force from the 
lungs — moves the surrounding air in contact with the mattress and bed- 
stead — and her body, the air, and the furniture are all surrounded and 
permeated with her vital emanations — and her mind in this manner 
plainly has a, perfect connection with the movements. 

A word on the facts from the Tribune : In your first proposition you 
say, " animal bodies are better conductors than wood," and follows the 
" best conductors," and would therefore " stay in the human body." 
The law of all fluids is equilibrium^ and some small share of fluid would 
go into the table, if it had less than the body. Note the tact. The 
persons sit half an hour with their hands on the table — it moves — they 
rise — it moves ofi", and revohes from end to end. The Baron says od- 
flame, when brought in contact with bodies, may be bent around them 
like the flame of a candle, and creeps along the surface in the same 
manner. That the cuticle is so bad a conductor as to render it " dijf- 
cult or impossible " to transmit the nerve-aura, is at variance with all the 
facts. That all experiments in this department show only the move- 
ment of a small needle.^ is wholly incorrect. Had the table been insulated 
the experiment might have been more perfect, but not prevented — the 
fact that the operators had io follow it up to keep it charged, shows that 
a constant supply luas oiecessary to continue the experiments. 

Experiments in odic influences, and in unlling matter^ show the fol- 
lowing facts : 

1 . That odic influence from males causes a vibration of the odometer 
north and soiUh ; from fe?nales , east and west ; from both together it re- 
vohes in a circle. 

When the odometer is suspended from the right hand of males, the 
vibration is north and south ; from the left hand, east and west; from 
both, a circle is the result — and so of females. 

Now, my dear sir, that experiment with the table annihilates all your 
labored propositions. The fact of its revolution from end to end., shows 
that the influence was from both sides of the body — or from males and 
females. Experiments in the Journal of Man ^ vol. iii, number 7, show 
that a bar of iron, weighing ten pounds, was toilled, and with as much 
ease as a small key. The odometer revolved as told, just by pro7wunc- 
ing the tvord, as perfectly as when willed. 



172 A DISCUSSION. 

Again : take a circular plate of steel one foot in diameter, put on it 
a handful of shingle-nails, pass a current of electricity on to the plate, 
and the nails all range from the center toward the circumference, with 
perfect accuracy — showing beyond cavil that electricity acts from the 
center toward the clrcioviference of bodies. Now apply this to the table, 
and your propositions vanish into nothing. 

The cases of disease — of propulsion — gyrations^ and rollings illustrate 
this law : one force moves forward and back, another across, both com- 
bined revolves the body — the centripetal and centrifugal forces are cer- 
tainly involved in our existence. Let your experimenters with the 
table apply the right hand — only — then the left — and then both, to the 
table, and you will get the propulsion and revolving of the table. The 
will has control over this revolving force — and may be seen in the 
Whirling Dervishes. When the will loses its control over these forces, 
the body obeys the law of the force which impels it. Man is a micro- 
cosm — a little universe. 

How much the impulse of the mind, the desire to make an experi- 
ment on the table, had to do with it, we cannot see — intelligence is not 
clearly indicated in that experiment — but it does most clearly illustrate 
the law of pouring fluids from the center of a body toward the circum- 
ference. 

Yonr reply to my last letter indicates the spirit of a man determined 
to defend his country " right or wrong." I was sorry to hang such a 
mill-s-tone around the neck of youo* subject — but I have one still heavier. 
When I state that the earth produces best when in a negative state., you 
assume that the fact is the reverse — because the atmosphere is shown to 
"be highly electrical by frequent storms and much lightning. 

The earth, friend Brittan, and the air, are two different bodies — and 
the atmosphere is positive, while the earth is negative — it is the male 
principle apparently in the phenomena of vegetation. That was a blun- 
der — and you did not intend to make it— so I will not mention it. Swe- 
denborg used to reason that the Universe was a " Grrand Man." My 
reasoning has convinced me that the Universe is a " Grand Woman," 
since the mighty impulse which animates each seems to be to produce, 
adorn, beautify, to love. 

My twelfth letter is based on the broad doctrine of '■'■geological periods'''' 
on the law of circles. Th? influence of various atmospheres is seen in 
the vegetable and animal varieties of the torrid, temperate and frigid 
zones. Any sudden change in the atmosphere of such regions is always 
seen in its effects on animal and vegetable life. In 1356, after earth- 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 173 

quakes and eruptions, the Hack death began in the north of Europe, 
and swept Grreenland of its inhabitants, and vegetation — left it a grave- 
yard. In 1783, Yoeal Scapter, in Iceland, had an eruption — vast quan- 
tities of lava were thrown out — the air was poisoned — Iceland was a 
charnel-house — the ribs of man and beast contracted on their vitals — 
their limbs became distorted — throats and heads swollen — their muscles 
shrank — their gums and tongues rotted, and their teeth fell out. 

Priestly tells of an eruption in the West Indies, where all the inhabi- 
tants were affected with violent headache — metalic furniture became 
rusted and osydized. Webster speaks of a thunder-storm in New- 
England — all the inhabitants over a large region had dull, heavy head- 
ache, and apoplexy was epidemic during the year. When comets enter 
our solar system their attraction on our atmosphere of course gives rise 
to eruptions. Our larger planets, revolving in the periods of eleven, 
thirty, and eighty-four years, would, in a favorable position, when near- 
est our globe, have the same effect — an_d one is struck with the return 
of these phenomena in numerous cases, in nearly these very periods of 
time. 

The law oi periods, or circles, is seen in every phenomena of vegetable 
and animal life. The snow-flake — the bud — the flower — the fruit — the 
tree — its top — our globe, and planets, and sun, are circular bodies — 
alike seen in the drop of water, and the sun that stands in the center. 
All planets moving around the sun — the system around other systems — 
and the whole around the Eternal Deity — the G-od the center of the 
whole — controlling by the impulse of his mind all planets and systems. 
Mr. Fishbough is right in his " Macrocosm " — all but his " patch-work " 
of " special providences." In all these marked geological periods we 
see vegetation — the atmosphere — animal life — disturbed and excited, 
and the mind of man shares in it. Fevers, plagues, and pestilence, 
always come — and never unattended by the electric temperajyient which 
we see so universal now. Vegetation is not only quick and rank — 
but men mature with great rapidity. In the period of 1792, up to 
1800, the earth everywhere showed signs of disease. The French, 
in their strange frenzy, showed mind such as the world does not now 
exhibit. All the prominent men of that revolution were young men. 
Barnave at 30, St. Just at 20, showed mental powers of the broad- 
est cast ; Mirabeau, Madame Roland, Yergnaud, and a host of others, 
were all young. "Imagination," as with Wise and Petin, perhaps 
would account for this wonderful phenomenon. So of the men of our 
own revolution, though slower — and the Indian tribes are no excep- 



174 A DISCUSSION. 

tion. The people of the West, in 1800, were in a mental and moral 
blaze — 20,000 frequently attended at one camp-meeting — 3,000 or 
5,000 often lay prostrate under one sermon, slain before the Lord. 
Jerks and convulsions often affected whole congregations. A vast im- 
pulse to religion and morals passed over the land. In 1811 a tremend- 
ous earthquake shook the valley of the Mississippi, and reached to 
Maine. This is a grand law. Changes that thus effect mind and body 
quicken vegetation, and usher into life myriads of the lower forms of 
life — fills the streams with fish — covers the earth with verdure and fruit 
— must by a natural law of universality disturb and push upward the 
human race. During that period all the world was busy with electricity. 
During these periods, all history shows, that our marked men are ushered 
into being. I could fill a volume with such facts. Our atmosphere is 
becoming purified — our nervous temperament is quickened — the brain 
unfolded — the moral and intellectual regions looming up. In the very 
elements in which we exist is planted the law for our unfolding, like the 
germ oak in the acorn — or the central speck which unfolds into a foetus. 
Once our thick atmosphere would only permit the saurian to live — now 
man lives, and the rose blooms. 

I must devote the rest of my space to your " preliminary observa- 
tions." In reference to what I have written, you still argue that I 
ascribe it to material agents, and that mind being manifested, I ascribe 
to material matter the powers only manifested by mind. This constant 
and reiterated perversion of my position is a deep and lamentable out- 
rage on yourself. I shall not again correct it. The " materialism " of 
my argument exists in your mind only, and deludes you at every step. 
At the close of your remarks, after asserting — as I have always done — 
that mind is manifest, you make the strange remark, that it transcends 
the powers of" embodied human mind," to which, you are well aware, 
all the intelligence is ascribed by myself — and yet you ask. Can " eels 
account for prophecy ?" Can od-force preach on Sunday } Can elec- 
tricity write books } You have shown a great hurry in your impatience 
to get along and get at the subject. Let us take time, and not worry 
ourselves. You dash along over the whole ground very strangely, up- 
setting everything in your way — indeed, a " carpet bag " would stand 
no chance of lying still in your wake. You trot out boldly into the 
ring, and if things don't move in a circle, it will be no fault of yours. 
I of course left the " ^/^e?w?«c7Jfl. " for you to dress up, it being your 
particular child. You vrill, of course, make it look better than I should. 
I do pretend, however, to have shown a rational origin for the stravge 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 175 

physical temperament and the physical signs following, which we are ob- 
serving, and have given a broad mass of examples of a similar condition in 
all ages of the world. 

You make the strange statement that " potential agents, if left to 
themselves, never 7nove agreeably to any mental formula we m,ay he pleased 
to dictate.'''' If mind is brought in contact with physical matter, as iu 
our bodies, it of course is not '■Heft to itself^ when under the control of 
mind, which is, to a certain extent, superior to matter. Why did you 
not say, that if life was knocked out of the human body, it would not 
move because " left to itself," having no mental formula to disturb it — 
and its " natural action being interrupted by mechanical and other means.'''' 
After letting off this a?-CTt/fl?- proposition, thick in- the distance come 
" glimmering stars " — " solar rays " — " pale moonlight " — " the winds 
blow " — " echoes ring " — " masts quiver " — " oaks creak " — " tem- 
pests splash " — and the conclusion is, that physical nature will not 
obey us. You refer, I presume, to the fact that the laws of gravitation 
take their own way — and still we have before us a fact, every moment, 
of man, by the force of will., constantly overcoming the laws of gravita- 
tion. Man is a lucky machine, contrived of body and mind, for that 
very purpose. In our present condition we can overcome those laws 
by will-force directly but to a limited extent ; by contrivance^ to a still 
greater extent — as seen in all mechanics. 

Now, friend Brittan, let me put a flea in your ear on this point. I 
learn from Swedenborg, Prof. Brittan, and all Spiritualists, that Spirits 
are organized bodies^ of 7mnd and imponderable matter — their bodies so 
light that human ingenuity can not weigh them ; in fact, the dead body 
is as heavy as the living — and the spirit of man, when drawn out of its 
tenement is not ponderable to human intelligence. Admit its heft to be 
that of hydrogen ^»5 — sixteen times lighter than air — and, the moment 
it gets its foot loose from the body, it would be driven from the earth 
with the speed of lightning — mounting upward, like the balloon, through 
ether and space, among hail and clouds and planets, till it found its 
local position agreeable to the laws of gravitation. No bolting here — 
stand up to fact. If the spirit is imponderable — and it is, so far as we 
know — it would be driven into the regions above by the force of some 
tuns — and, so far as we know, with mediums to help them, they have 
only moved some 500 pounds. In starting, we assumed the fact that 
spirits existed — but we can not allow you to assume that they are back 
here., till you show they can come, agreeably to the laws of matter. 



176 A DISCUSSION. 

They are iodies, and must obey the same law that controls atoms and 
globes. 

How much will-force will enable them to overcome the laws of gravi- 
tation ? Perhaps attraction turns the other way in their case. Let 
them eome according to law, if they come at all. The savans, in their 
computation, must remember that, when " kiUed," they '■ get back easier.'' 
What say you, Bro. Brittan .'' The fact that all agree that they are 
spirits, proves nothing ; and it's the only thing they do ag7-ee in — and 
not even in that. At the close of a lecture on spirits, a gentleman 
rose and asserted that " he knew it was all from the Devil, for his motJier 
came tip and told him so'''' ! 

You get no knowledge lyi7ig outside of the human mind — the com- 
munications are stamped with humanity, fitting to the prevailing idea, 
in a multitude of cases, and showing the jumble of the dream-state in 
many others. Let spu'its be obedient to the '■'■potvers that be.'"' 

Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



BRITTAH AND RICHMONB'S DISCXJSSIOK . 

NUMBER TWO, 

VOCAL UTTERANCES OF SPIRITS, 

Dear Sir : Some persons complain that the Spiritualists are disposed 
to theorize too much, and that they are laboring to force a theory on the 
world, while they should be satisfied to observe and record the phenom- 
ena that may occur, leaving it for time and future developments to de- 
termine their origin. I am induced to refer to this complaint because 
it is erroneous and unjust. I have yet to learn that those who enter- 
tain the spiritual idea are especially obnoxious to this charge. Indeed, 
this business has been monopolized by the opposition. What have the 
unbelievers done, hitherto, but indulge in the most improbable specula- 
tions ? Who shall number their theories to-day, or exhibit the relations 
of those theories to the rational faculties of man .'' It is true we are dis- 
posed to credit the claims of the mysterious visitors. It may be fairly 
said that we are civil enough to let them tell their own story. They af- 
firm that they are Spirits^ and are accustomed to prove it, and to estab- 
lish their personal identity by a great variety of modes. Very often the 
evidence afforded is of the most satisfactory nature, and the rational be- 
liever, instead of attempting to force a theory of his own, merely honors 
the claims which his reason can not reject. 

Without further delay, I will now proceed to a citation of such facts 
as, in my judgment, illustrate the claims of the spiritual idea. I find 
that the facts adapted to my purpose are extremely numerous, but the 
limits to which I am restricted in these letters, will only enable me to 
introduce a few examples of each particular class. The presence of an> 
invisible intelligence has not unfrequently been indicated by vocal 
SOUNDS of a mysterious and significant character. Many persons in dif- 
ferent ages and countries have heard voices, both strange and familiar, 
sometimes proceeding from the visible psychical forms of persons known 
to have departed this life, while, on other occasions, these mystical ut- 
terances have occurred with equal distinctness when no form was dis- 
cernible. The examples which I shall present on the present occasion; 
will be chiefly of the latter class. I shall select, from those that come 

12 



178 A DISCUSSION. 

to my mind wliile writing, such facts as will illustrate my idea, without 
regard to the time and place of their occurrence, my object being to 
show that spirits have often spoken to men. I shall first instance, 
briefly, a few cases recorded in the Scriptures. 

In the book of Glenesis we have an account of the expulsion of Hagar 
and her son from the household of Abraham. They were driven into 
the wilderness and left to wander without the means of subsistence ; and 
Hagar, in despair, sat down and wept, saying, " Let me not see the 
death of the child." Then an angel " called to her out of heaven," 
or from above, and ministered to her wants. 

In Numbers, chapter xxii, we have a remarkable account of the ap- 
pearance of an angelic personage to Balaam. The presence of the spirit 
was indicated by his wonderful control over the organs of the beast — the 
dumb animal, whereon the magician rode, being impelled to speak in 
an audible and intelligent manner. 

Elijah was a medium for spiritual communications. It is related in 
the nineteenth chapter of the First Book of Kings, that a spirit came to 
him and directed him to take food before starting on a journey to Mount 
Horeb. Subsequently, and during his stay in the mountain, he was 
again addressed in a " still small voice," which, according to the 
account, emanated from an inhabitant of the Spirit-world. 

In the fourth chapter of Job we have the following sublime descrip- 
tion of an interview with a spirit : " In thoughts from the visions of the 
night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trem- 
bling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before 
my face ; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not 
discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes ; there was 
silence, and I heard a voice saying : ' Shall mortal man be more just 
than Grod ? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker .'' ' " In this 
case the sense of hearing appears to have been most successfully 
addressed, the occult presence being but imperfectly disclosed to the 
vision. There was an image before the eye, but it was dim and shad- 
owy, the precise outline not being distinguishable. 

In the fourth chapter of Daniel it is said that, while the king of Bab- 
ylon was vainly boasting of the magnitude of his power and the glory of 
his empire, " there fell a voice from Heaven, saying, 0, King Nebuchad- 
nezzar, to thee it is spoken ; the kingdom is departed from thee, &c." 
A.greeably to the narrative the king was immediately driven from his 
: palace to herd with the beasts of the fleld, and thus the prediction was 
signally verified. 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 179 

Saul being on his journey to Damascus, to persecute the beMevers in 
Spiritualism, was suddenly arrested by Spiritual agency, and he heard a 
voice saying unto him, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou rue ?" There 
are many similar examples recorded in the Jewish scriptures, but I must 
have recourse to other authors and to the unpublished records of human 
experience for further illustrations. 

The founder of the Pythagorean philosophy, who lived some six hun- 
dred years before Christ, was, on one occasion, crossing the river Nessus, 
with a number of his personal friends and disciples, when a loud voice 
was heard by the entire company, apparently proceeding from the 
bosom of the waters, saying, " Hail Pythagoras!" 

Josephus, in his account of the Jewish wars, relates that before the 
destruction of Jerusalem by the Homans, and while the priests were 
performing the rites of the Temple-worship, there was heard within the 
hallowed precincts, mysterious voices, as of an invisible multitude, say- 
ing, "Let us go hence." 

Swedenborg, during the last twenty-nine years of his life, was accus- 
tomed to converse with Spirits, who often appeared and spoke to him 
like other men. His first experience of this kind occurred in 1743, 
while he was dining at a hotel in London. He states in a letter to a 
friend, that while eating he was suddenly startled by a loud voice from 
a spirit in the corner of the room, who warned him not to indulge his 
appetite too freely. 

Mrs. Crowe has collected a great variety of facts of Spiritual inter- 
course, most of which will admit of no explanation on the pi'inciples of 
physical nature. I will select three examples, from among a large 
number equally interesting, to further illustrate the ability of Spirits to 
speak in an audible voice. 

" Grrotius relates that When Mr. de Saumaise was councillor of the 
parliament at Dijon, a person, who knew not a word of G-reek, brought 
him a paper on which was written some words in that language, but not 
in the character. He said that a voice had uttered them to him in the 
night, and that he had written them down, imitating the sound as well 
as he could. Mons. de Saumaise made out that the signification of the 
words was, ' Begone ! do you not see that death impends .?' Without 
comprehending what danger was predicted, the person obeyed the man- 
date and departed. On that night the house that he had been lodging 
in fell to the ground." 

" An American clergyman told me that an old woman, with whom he 
was acquainted, who had two sons, beard a voice say to her in the night, 



180 A DISCUSSION. 

' John's dead !' This was her eldest son. Shortly afterward, the news 
of his death arriving, she said to the person who communicated the 
intelligence to her, ' If John's dead, then I know that David is dead, 
too, for the same voice has since told me so ;' and the event proved 
that she was correct." 

A Mr. J. related a singular personal experience to Mrs. Crowe. He 
had been ill, and there being no apothecary in the immediate neighbor- 
hood, had been accustomed to send to a village some five miles distant 
to procure medicine. " One night he had been to M for this pur- 
pose, and had obtained his last supply- — for he was now recovered — 
when a voice seemed to warn him. that some great danger was impend- 
ing — his life was in jeopardy ; then he heard, but not with his outward 
ear, a beautiful prayer, ' It was not myself that prayed,' he said, ' the 
prayer was far beyond anything I am capable of composing — it spoke of 
me in the third person, always as ht ; and supplicated that for the sake 
of my widowed mother this calamity might be averted.'" It appears 
from the further details of this case that, when Mr. J. was about to 
take his medicine, he fancied there was something peculiar in its ap- 
pearance, and his suspicions were excited. He hesitated, but at last 
took half the prescribed quantity. This, however, was speedily followed 
by the most alarming symptoms; the chemist had made a mistake, the 
compound contained a deadly poison, and notwithstanding the smallness 
of the dose the patient with difficulty survived its effects. — (Night-side 
of Nature, pp. 82, 85, 87.) 

The life of Jung Stilling affords many interesting examples of Spiri- 
tual intercourse and guardianship, one of which I will briefly state, as it 
illustrates the particular phase of the Spiritual phenomena treated of in 
this letter. Stilling, having occasion to address his friend Hess, felt, 
while he was writing, a deep interior sensation, as though a strange voice 
had spoken within him, assuring him that his friend ' Lavater would 
experience a bloody death.' He therefore communicated this impres- 
sion in his letter to Hess. Two months after, Lavater was mortally 
wounded by a Swiss grenadier. 

Captain Glriffith, commander of a New-Orleans and New-York packet 
ship, gave me several remarkable incidents in his experience, which 
clearly indicate the guardianship of spirits. I will here introduce a 
single example. Captain Gr. retired one night while at sea, with a fresh 
breeze blowing toward the land. The weather was not favorable, but 
my friend presuming that he was several hundred miles from shore, ap- 
prehended no danger. He had been in his berth a short time, and was 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND, 181 

beginning to yield to the influence of sleep, when he was suddenly 
aroused by a cry of " Breakers ahead !" He started and ran on deck, 
but finding that all was right, returned to his room. He had well nigh 
composed himself and was beginning to feel drowsy, when he was again 
disturbed in a similar manner. He went on deck, as before, but could 
perceive no danger, and again he retired to his berth. He had partially 
lost his outward consciousness, when he was once more startled by the 
same terrible cry ! He now thought he perceived a light under the 
lee, and that he heard the hoarse sound of the breakers. He proceeded 
to the deck for the third time, and glancing to the leeward he actually 
descried the light, and could plainly distinguish by the sound of the 
waves that he was rapidly approaching the shore. The watch had not 
discovered the danger. Captain G-iiffith was the first to give the alarm, 
and to issue the order ' to round to,' and he very narrowly escaped the 
rocks in changing the direction of the ship. 

In the Spiritual Telegraph of September 4th, 1852, D. J. Man- 
dell relates a singular fact, concerning a young man in Massachusetts, 
who had sometime before buried his father. The youth had been in 
the habit of treating his mother with marked unkindnes;?. This mis- 
conduct was continued until it became the theme of common remark in 
the neighborhood. One day this undutiful son came in from his work, 
and, with an air of uncommon solemnity, he said to his mother, " I 
shall never treat you ill again." Mr. Mandell learned on inquiry that, 
" the son had been warned by the voice of his deceased father, when 
in the open air." Subsequently, what purported to be the spirit of the 
father communicated the following, which the invisible intelligence de- 
clared to be the words he had addressed to his son, and which had so 
affected the latter : I have seen your treatment to your mother. Go and 
do letter hereafter^ or I will appear to you ! 

Some time since a friend gave me an account of a most interesting 
incident in the life of a Methodist clergyman, which I will introduce in 
this connection. My friend had the story from a reliable source, and 
I believe it to be well authenticated, though I can not at this moment 
recall the name of the preacher, or the precise locality of the occurrence. 
The clergyman, who, I am informed, is still living and resides in this 
country, was traveling on horseback in the north of England, when the 
interesting incident occurred. It was winter, and a severe snow storm 
prevailed at the time. He was pursuing an unfrequented road which 
was obscured by the heavy fall of snow. Evening came on and the 
deepening gloom rendered it impossible to determine whether he was 



182 A DISCUSSION. 

riding in the right direction. However, he continued to wander on, 
though unable to perceive any sign of a human habitation, and doubtful 
whether he was every moment drawing nearer to his destination or to 
destruction. At length, night invested the dreary landscape and all 
outward forms, in her soft mantle woven of the shadows, and the trav- 
eler began to realize more deeply the nature of his situation. He felt 
some apprehension, and his fears struggled with his confidence in the 
Divine Providence, when- — suddenly — his meditations were interrupted 
by a loud voice, that seemed to come from the upper air, with the start- 
ling power of a trumpet-blast. The voice uttered, as nearly as I can 
-remember, the following emphatic words : " Stop ! Stop ! Stop I 
Turn about ! Turn about ! Turn about !" The horse stood still, and 
his rider instinctively obeying the voice turned the animal round, when 
he perceived, a little off from the direction he had come, a light that 
seemed to indicate the locality of a dwelling. Instantly inspired with 
the hope of finding a place of security from the dangers of the night, he 
directed his steps toward the light, and soon found that it shone from 
the window of a cottage, where he obtained a comfortable shelter. The 
storm subsided about the same hour, and on the following morning, the 
tracks of the horse being distinctly visible, he felt a curiosity to visit the 
spot where he was arrested by the mysterious voice. Accordingly, he 
pursued the path to its termination, and was utterly amazed to find him- 
self standing on the very brink of a chalk cliff some two hundred feet 
above the water ! Had he proceeded ten feet further he would have 
plunged into the abyss below ! 

But I must here conclude my citation of facts, in illustration of this 
particular phase of the Spiritual phenomena. Many other examples, 
equally well adapted to my purpose, crowd upon me, but I am wanting 
in the space to record them. It will readily be perceived that, the 
facts already adduced are of the same general class ; hence, though scat- 
tered over a period embracing thousands of years, I have thought proper 
to bring them together in this connection. If they have any significance, 
they most certainly prove that spirits have been accustomed to speak to 
mortals in all ages, and that among the various modes of communication 
adopted, the one under consideration affords many convincing examples, 
before which an honest skepticism must retire in silence, while human art 
and physical science are powerless to suggest an adequate cause. 

Although it is not incumbent on me, in the present instance, to at- 
tempt the elucidation of anything beyond the single fact of the inter- 
course between spirits and men, it may, nevertheless, be interesting to 



ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. Ig3 

observe, that the foregoing examples disclose three distinct modes of 
operation which may be thus distinguished : 

1. The organs of men and animals are used in the production of 
articulate sounds. In this case the spirit en rapport acts on the electrical 
forces of the nervous system and distributes them, so as to produce mus- 
cular action without the agency, and, very often, in opposition to the 
vigorons efforts of the medium. Of this particular class, only a single 
example occurs in this letter, the one cited from the book of Numbers. 

2. Another mode is by acting from within the siobjcd on the sensational 
medium, in such a manner as to produce a kind of sensation very much 
resembling the external hearing, and known as the interior voice. It is 
not improbable that the " still small voice " which succeeded the 
tempest, the earthquake and the fire in Horeb, was a phenomenon of this 
description. The cases of Mr. J. who took poison, and of Jung Stilling, 
manifestly belong to this class, and are striking examples. 

3. Another and more general mode of operation, appears to consist 
in producing electrical disturbances on the auditory nerve, as in the or- 
dinary process of sensation. However, I am persuaded that these 
efieets may be produced in two ways, and yet the observer may be una- 
ble to distinguish the difference, for the reason that the sensational phe- 
nom,ena, of which alone he is qualified to judge, are in all respects the 
same. The spirit may disturb the elements that compose the atmo- 
sphere and the sensorium may be impressed by the undulations of the 
atmospheric medium, as in the ordinary production of sound , or, the 
intelligence may act directly on the auditory nerve causing the same 
nervous and cerebral excitation. The examples comprehended in this 
letter, and not previously classified, appear to be illustrations of the 
third general mode of spiritual- vocal communication. 

The ordinary laws and processes of Nature are uniform. It certainly 
will not be pretended that their prevailing modes of operation have ever 
been varied so as to conform to the particular desires of men. The very 
persons who have studied the principles of the outward universe most 
profoundly, have been accustomed to reject such facts as I have intro- 
duced in this letter, because, in their judgment, nature has never pro- 
duced any analogous phenomena. It surely will not be alleged that 
these mysterious voices were the result of any species of fraud. Neither 
will the rational mind regard them as mere creatures of the imagina- 
tion, since it can not be shown that any of the parties who were the 
living witnesses were expecting to be addressed in this peculiar manner,, 
or that they could have anticipated the occurrence of the facts. I. 



184 A DISCUSSION. 

trust that no one will resort to the absurd assumption that, in all these 
cases, the evidence of the senses was deceptive. Neither the human 
mind nor body could have produced the results, by any involuntary 
action, or in such a manner as to occasion an unconscious self-deception. 
To indulge in such a conjecture is to transcend the utmost limit of prob- 
abilities, and to trifle with the whole subject. It will avail nothing to 
refer to other facts of a doubtful or spurious character ; it is useless, 
moreover, to prove that some men are sick and others credulous, or that 
jugglers may deceive those who are unpractised in their arts. / desire to 
admit all this in advance^ that my friend may he spared so much unneces- 
sary labor. I now respectfully submit that there are but three ways to 
dispose of the particular facts, to which your attention is here invited : 
First, prove that they a?-e not facts ; Second, admit the reality of the 
phenomena, and account for their occurrence without spiritual agency ; 
or, Finally, the facts must be accepted, and their peculiar claims re- 
spectfully acknowledged. 

In my analysis I shall venture, in all cases, to regard the nature of 
the phenomena under discussion, and to disregard all extrinsic circum- 
stances. The undeveloped mind is accustomed to repose on mere ex- 
ternals. It respects the truth on account of the medium, or on the 
authority of the record, rather than for anything intrinsic in itself. 
This is wrong. Reason and conscience require us to value the facts for 
the reason that they are facts., and for nothing else. I shall not stop 
to inquire whether the truth has been endorsed by great names, or to 
ascertain if it be under the seal of the councils. It may be reviled and 
persecuted of men ; but if it bears the image and superscription of 
Heaven, I will religiously observe its claims. 

Yours, fraternaUy, S. B. BRITTAN. 



REPLY TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

NUMBER TWO. 

Dear Sir : Before proceeding to the explanation of facts in your 
second letter, I must put you back on the point you have assumed, i. e., 
that spirits are back here. My second point against such a supposition 
is, that spirits being disemiodied persons, and having a transcript of all 
the bodily organs, the lungs must come into consideration. All our 
knowledge of man, at least, shows that the atmosphere is essential to 
his existence — he must breathe — and the chemical changes produced in 
the blood is well known — that a constant renovation, or calorification, 
of the blood is indispensable to animal life. The whole phenomenon of 
life seems to be chemical — and all our food undergoes the action of 
chemical agents before it can be appropriated to the work of nourish- 
ment. The question is often asked, What do spirits live on ! what do 
they eat .'' Analogy teaches me that they live on the atmosphere, found 
in their part icalar locality, and it would be more abominable to suppose 
that spirits could breathe our atmosphere than to suppose that we could 
breathe in salt water. Mahomet makes his bad followers in the spirit- 
state swallow boiling water, filled with thistles and briars. Another 
system, makes lost spirits breathe the fumes of brimstone — and you at 
once say that such opinions violate all analogy, and all known laws of 
animal life ; but it is not half so ridiculous as the opinion that spirit- 
beings, with imponderahle bodies — with brain, nerves and lungs — could 
enter our atmosphere, and breathe a medium or matter vastly more dense 
than their oion bodies. Get that idea clearly before your mind, and then 
try to '■^imagine " how supremely repugnant to common sense such an 
opinion must be. 

In your opening ' preliminaries ' you give great weight to the fact 
that all the responses assert, that this unseen agency is spirits. Insane 
people, in a multitude of instances, affirm that they are harassed by 
spirits. This fact constitutes one strong identity between them and the 
medium state — they often get it into their heads that they are God, or 
Christ, or the Holy Ghost. Suppose one half of community in the 
same mood, and ask them who they are — the response is always the 



186 



A DISCUSSION. 



same — " I am God, or Gbiist " — how much would it prove as to who 
they were ? Apply your reasoning to sects, and you would prove them 
all to be taught of God, and founded on the Bible. 

These mediums profess to be unconscious and involuntary as to the 
source of their acts, and in this case they ref.ect the existing impression, 
that spirits are the cause. One medium wrote out in my presence that 
it was electricity. She asked electricity to rap, and it responded. Many 
have received responses from dogs. Miss Cowles, in Austinburgh, 
called up the ghost of a horse—" old Pomp."— and he tramped like a 
hoi^e on the table. The sounds followed the impression. The spirit of 
a dog scratched in the same way. 

I must invite attention to the law of en rapport between mind and 
mind, in the magnetic state. It is admitted on all hands that such a 
state exists ; but I will give a few examples to illustrate it. We can 
not understand these sounds and sights without it, and as the sounds, 
sights, and writings, all follow the law of mental reflection— &u^ the re- 
flected image often corresponds to other minds than the medium ov ghost - 
seer— both must be noticed together. In mesjnerism this law is ap- 
parent. 

In Deluze, I find this fact : A subject, in Connecticut, in the mes- 
meric mood, was put in rapport with a gentleman to visit his parlor. 
She described an old harp in a particular place in the room, covered with 
green baize. She described things accurately, as the gentleman affirmed ; 
but on going home, he found that on the d^d^j previoibs to the visit of the 
subject, the harp had been removed to another room ! She saw the 
harp in the place it occupied in his mind, and not where it really was 
the night of her visit. She evidently took the description from his mind. 
The idea that mesmeric persons visit in spirit distant places, is all fal- 
lacy. Take one set of facts. Such persons are often consulted about 
money lost or stolen. You bury or hide money, or property, and then 
consult them — they will in many cases tell where it is ; but ask them 
of Kidd's money, and they always fail— or of stolen property, and 
they always fail, unless you have a suspicion that guides them. They 
consult the mind of the inquirer. Upham's lectures on Witchcraft re- 
lates that a little girl, reputed a witch, in the care of Dr. Cotton Mather 
would, when he repeated Hebrew, instantly tell the meaning ; when he 
repeated Latin, she instantly told the meaning ; when he repeated 
Greek, she instantly told the meaning ; when he spoke Indian, she pro- 
fessed not to know what it meant. The Doctor believing her fully un- 
der the Devil's control, inferred that his long-tailed majesty was a good 



ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 187 

Hebrew, G-reek and Latin scliolai', but did not understand Indian. The 
fact proves beyond cavil a power in the human mind of a singular char- 
acter. This child in Cotton Mather's possession, in her peculiar state, 
apparently translated the sounds. The mind of the child was so per- 
fectly en ra/pport with Mather's, that she took the import of Hebrew and 
Grreek from his viind by the sounds being pronounced on her ear. 

Your own experiments in psychology, with many others, proves a 
connection between mind and mind at a great distance. I have im- 
pressed a mind 200 miles distant and received an exact response, both 
in fact and time. In periods of great mental activity in the human mind 
this is often observed. When steam was under investigation in this 
country, minds in Europe were on the same track. So of electricity, 
and so at the present hour. Who does not see a simultaneous tendency 
in minds in the same direction ? As this law of en rapport will find con- 
stant elucidation as I proceed, I leave it. 

Now for your sounds. This law of mental reJlecLion acts alike through 
all the organs of sense — the tongue, nose, eye, ear, and hand, receive 
alike its inner impiilse. ^ Taste is reflected in the mesmeric state — the 
taste is governed by the sound that strikes the ear. Smell is often 
affected in the same way. Frequent mention of the fact occurs in witch 
trials. The impression in the mind always was in those cases, that it 
was the Devil, and being a large dealer in brimstone, he frequently left 
behind him at his departure a corresponding smell. Luther was greatly 
annoyed by the Devil ; he was always before his imagination — slept 
between him and his wife (double consciousness) — and annoyed him by 
sounds at night. What were the sounds } When confined in the castle 
of Wartburgh, he says they brought him hazel-nuts and put them in a 
box, and he used to crack and eat of them — and he continues in his 
" Table Talk " : " My gentleman, the devil, came in the night and 
got the nuts out of the box and cracked them against the bed-posts — 
making a great noise and rumlling about my bed. When I began to 
slumber he kept a racket and rumlling of barrels on the stairs." Luther 
had a miserable opinion of the Devil, and would at once suspect him of 
stealing hazel-nuts ; but the propriety of keeping such a spiritioal being 
on such corporeal fodder may well be questioned.^ The sounds, in part, 
at least, followed his impressions. 

The girl, in Cotton Mather's family, " often felt something go out of 

her — which the doctor heard in sounds, like that of a mouse.'''' The 

Salem witches, especially children, often had these sounds. They first 

saw the Devil in the shape of mice around the floor. They would seize 

^ See Appendix, ^o\q A. 



A DISCUSSION. 



tbem and throw them in the fire, when all in the house could hear the 
Devil-mice squml while in the embers. None saw those sjpeder-mice but 
the children^ but all in the hoiist heard them squeal. His majesty is used 
io fire, and his complaint in such a place was entirely out of character. 

Now to understand these facts rightly we must recollect that every- 
hody^ in that day, believed that Satan could assume the form of spiders, 
fl,ieSj mice, cats, dogs, ptcppies and old tvomen, and indeed there is no 
shape that the " Old Harry " has not turned into. These children, 
with this impression in mind in their magnetic moods, saw mice, purely 
spectral, and this image before the mind's eye, dictated the rest of their 
acts. They would also, under this belief, " purr like cats, bark like 
dogs and cluck like hens." Different' sounds are seen in the legend of 
the " Screeching "Woman of Marblehead." The story runs, that a pirat- 
ical vessel, in the seventeenth century, landed in Marblehead harbor. 
The men were all gone fishing. The pirates murdered the prisoners on 
shore, among which was an English lady. The females heard her 
scream : " mercy, mercy ! Lord Jesus save me !" That voice is still 
heard almost every year in still star-light or moon-light nights. The 
sounds are described as " wild, mysterious, superhuman and chilling." 
The Marblehead Register, in 1830, states that persons were living, of 
unimpeachable character, who have heard these sounds. These sounds 
follow the mental impression, and can only be explained by mental reflec- 
tion. In a cold, star-light night, when the air is mangnetic and im- 
presses the brain, the mind falling on these old impressions impels the 
idea of sound on the ear, and that organ receiving most of its impres- 
sions from the outer world, hears this mental voice, exterior to the body. 
Dr. Johnson, on entering his college-room, distinctly heard his mother'' s 
voice — then absent twenty miles and in health. He was surprised when 
he found nothing came of it. During Philip's war, in 1675, Simsbury, 
Conn., was burned. Col. Robe's father was walking, Sunday morning, 
in the open air, and he distinctly heard a small-arm fired in the air. 
His family also heard it, and it was heard south, fifty miles. It alarmed 
all Connecticut. The Governor summoned a council of war at Hart- 
ford, and defense was resolved on. The inhabitants of Simsbury fled, 
men, women and children. Two days after, Philip's warriors burned 
the village. This fact, if we will study it, teaches volumes on the laws 
of mind. 

In this case the law of rapport is plainly seen. All Connecticut was 
in fear of an attack from the Indians — this is the image in the mind. 
War, guns, and the Savage mind in Massachusetts was concentrated on 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 



tlie Colonists, and on Simsbury in particular, as the result showed. The 
image impressed was death, guns, and powder, and the reflection corre- 
sponded. The report of a gun was heard for miles around — the reflec- 
tion followed the image. A fact involving the same law, is published 
in the Telegraph, No. 27, by J. W. Olcott. He was teaching ; his 
father was sick — thought to be dying — he passed into the cataleptic state 
— was thought to be dead. At this very time his son, some miles dis- 
tant in his school-house, heard rumbling sounds in another room, and 
clods falling on a cofiin ; also at the side of the school-house. The 
father wished to see the son, and in this state impressed his mind with 
these images — or what closely corresponded to them. The father's 
mind, in rapport with his son's, impressed the image — he heard these 
mental sounds outside of the school-house. A case recently occurred in 
France, similar. The man supposed to be dead was carried to his grave, 
and loud knockings in the coffin stopped his burial. The phenomenon 
was repeated three times — the man was not buried. 

Mr. Olcott reasons logically upon this class of sounds. I could swell 
these examples to a volume, but must turn my attention to your exam- 
ples of spirit sounds. I am aware that I am plunging into the open, 
shoreless sea of religious superstition — but I shall not shrink from my 
convictions on this subject. The whole citadel of Ghost-seeing is, in my 
opinion, founded in ignorance of the laws of our mental organization. 
The outer world has its laws of reflection, the inner or mental world 
has also its laws of reflection, and each corresponding to the other. The 
world of matter reflects its perfect image, unless intervening matter pre- 
vents it. The world of mind reflects its own images unless mind-ele- 
ments, thoughts., intervene to prevent it. 

The case of Hagar follows the rule I have laid down. Angels at that 
day were regarded as ministering spirits. The idea was impersonated 
in her mind. Balaam's case follows the same law — he knew he was 
cruel — the ass smashed his foot, and finally rebuked him. Instead of 
the angel impressing the animal, the animal evidently impressed the 
prophet. That was a singular case of impression which used the organs 
of an ass to speak through. Anatomy lies in the way of your conclusion. 
The usual kindness of the beast was what impressed Balaam — the voice 
spoke in accordance with it. 

The images in Elijah's case are not brought out in the narrative, so 
as to admit of criticism. One would naturally suppose he knew enough 
to ea.t before a journey.^ without spirit-direction. Job was a profound 
philosopher, and in his conflict with three perverse friends, those reflec- 



190 A DISCUSSION. 

tions were started in his mind — the idea is impersonated, and reflects 
its image through the ear. Job was evidently in a dream. Kings often 
have the same visions that Nebuchadnezzar did — and the fear became a 
reality. The mind seizes on the idea, and responds to itself. If kings 
in these days should have visions, they would see Kossuth, or I am no 
prophet. King Saul's case is similar. Samuel spoke the images in the 
mind of Saul. Saul of Tarsus' mind was constantly harrassed by the 
inoffensive character of Christ and his followers — the voice spoke in ac- 
cordance with the impression. He was evidently debating with himself 
— Now why should I hate Christ .? he is innocent — why should I per- 
secute his followers ? Paxil's conscience, speaking to the Jew, in him 
said — " "Why peisecutest thou me .?" The voice, as in other cases, was 
heard— apparently exteriorly. 

The image in the mind of Pythagoras was the reception he should meet 
with when he arrived at his destination — his follower with him would 
naturally be en rapport — " all hail " would be the natural reflection of 
his mind. The case of Josephus is diff'erent Here a multitude of 
voices speak. The one concentrated idea on the minds of priest and 
people was to flee — " begone " — the Romans are upon you. Each 
priest seemed to reflect a voice. In ghost-seeing, a multitude of per- 
sons are seen, in many cases, instead of one. 

Swedenborg had surfeited himself — or he was reflecting on diet. His 
psyohological temperament had all sorts of reflections apparently. Spir- 
its from our moon, seen by him, were small — thundered over his head — 
and were provided with an air-hag in the bowels to supersede the neces- 
sity of an atmosphere, which did not exist, as he believed, on that 
planet. The spirits from other planets were singular. Some went on 
their hands and feet, others had half of the face black ; all, however, 
agreed remarkably with Swedenborg in theology. Some came from be- 
yond our solar system, but none informed him of any planet lying be- 
yond Herschell. It would have been a very pretty piece of confirma- 
tion. I can not comment on all his mental ghost-seeing, as I can not 
see the vast contents of his mind. His " Earths in the Universe " is 
filled with these relations — all the spirits talked with him. The case of 
Grotius and the Greek work, and the house falling, is referable to the 
moodof minds that translated Mather's Greek, embodying his own im- 
pressions of the house, or that of some minds in rapport. 

" John's dead," is referable to the law of en rapport. She took it 
from the minds who possessed the fact. The friends around the dying 
led ohenhnpTCSs absent friends. 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 19l 

The case of the poisoned man — by Mrs. Crowe — is easily explained : 
The prayer was excited by en rapport with the mind who received the 
medicine— his mind was impressed by the medicine itself. Medicines 
held in the hand in papers, cause vomiting, catharsis, &c. The prayer 
was a specimen of double consciousness. The man was impressed by the 
medicine, " it looked peculiar — he took one-half.'''' 

The sea Captain was impressed by his proximity to the shore — sound 
of the breakers while asleep — " breakers ahead " would be tlie natural 
reflection to a sailor. He was almost asleep — my own ears hear .sounds 
just as I approach itnconscionsness in sleep — raps at the door so loud I 
often get up and go to the door — I am often aroused in the night — by 
a messenger — and this is the source of the sounds. These sounds often 
rouse me instantly to my feet. 

The circumstances of Lavater's death, are not sufficiently full to admit 
of remark. 

The boy who abused his mother, is paralleled by Bunyan's case — the 
voice spoke what had been repeated to him — his father's ghost had evi- 
dently been used as a scare-crow. 

The minister who was " stopped" by a voice was impressed by sur- 
rounding influences — the abyss and the cottagers and his fears quickened 
his mental movements. 

A similar case occurred in Davenport, N. Y. An old lady, who had 
money, on retiring to bed seemed to hear a voice say, " Don't blow out 
the candle." It disturbed her ; she arose, went to a neighbor's • in the 
morning she found her house was broken open. In a few nights she 
was robbed and murdered. The murderer's confession showed him on 
the night of the voice to be prowling about the house waiting for the light 
to be extinguished. Her mind impressed by his — of danger near — the 
candle, &c. — safety was the suggestion and the inverted reflection as it 
were — saved her for that time. 

These cases compare with the Indian case related above — these facts 
require study and thought. Spirit seeing furnishes a far richer field for 
illustration of the law oi mental refieciion. Yours truly, 

B. W. BICHMOND. 



BEITTAN AND PJCHMOIJB'S BISCITSSION. 

NUMBER THREE. 

WKITTEN COMMUNICATIONS OF SPIKITS. 

Dear Sir : Whatever may be the speculatiye ideas of men concern- 
ing the nature of Mind, and its relations to such forms of matter as are 
subject to sensuous observation and to the ordinary modes of analysis, 
all men agree in ascribing to it forces and functions which immeasura- 
bly transcend the plane of mere materiality. Mind is, therefore, above 
Matter in the scale of being. I must not be understood to imply, by 
this remark, that mind is immaterial in a strictly philosophical sense, or 
that what we denoniinate spirit is without form and unsubstantial. 
Without attempting any subtile distinctions I may say in general terms 
that, Mind is superior to all unorganized substances, and to all created 
things which belong to the inferior kingdoms or subordinate planes of 
being. From this acknowledged superiority we may rationally infer 
that, Mind may so act on Matter as to influence its specific conditions, 
modify its forms, and change its localities. I can not resist the convic- 
tion that Mind is the motive power of the Universe, while all that is 
ordinarily comprehended by the world of matter consists of passive ele- 
ments subject to its supreme control. Any other idea leads directly to 
Atheism. If such are the relations of the material and spiritual, it 
must follow that each individual human mind must be capable of exer- 
cising dominion over a limited sphere, corresponding in extent to the 
maofuitude of its powers. This miniature world of outward conditions 
and circumstances, wherein the individualized spirit rules, may be 
enlarged as our finite faculties are unfolded, and especially is it probable 
that this dominion of the spirit will be rendered more complete by the 
dissolution of the form. The mind, in the second sphere of human ex- 
istence, must pervade a body of more refined elements and indestructi- 
ble organization, and it is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that its 
capacity to move, and to produce motion among surrounding elements, 
may be increased rather than diminished. If it be assumed that spirits 
are less qualified to wield the gross means and physical implements at 
our command, it must also be conceded that they may have a more 
accurate perception of invisible agents, and a more sovereign control 



A DISCUSSION. 193 

over their mysterious operations. It must be obvious to the philosophic 
mind that all ultimate causes are invisible, spiritual and eternal, while eflfects 
remotely related to the Central Cause, are perceived by the physical 
senses, and are characterized by an ever-changing phenomenality. An 
ancient spiritual philosopher observes this distinction, between the visi- 
ble world of effects, and the invisible sphere of causes, when he says, 
" The things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are 
not seen, are eternal." If mind, or spirit, is thus superior to the mate- 
rial elements — even in their highest degree of inorganic sublimation — 
and can influence the for?ns, conditions, and relations of terrestrial 
things, we reason in strict conformity to the essential principles of mat- 
ter and mind when we ascribe transcendent powers to the unshackled 
Spirit. 

I will now proceed with my classification of facts, and shall devote the 
principal part of this letter to certain vfritten communications for 
which a spiritual authorship is claimed. I deem it expedient to con- 
tinue the method adopted in my last letter, and will first invite you to 
a consideration of several interesting examples recorded in the Bible. 
Allow me to remark in this connection, that the book here referred to 
contains a very great number and variety of spiritual experiences, and 
I desire especially to invite the attention of Christian people, and othei'S 
who do not believe in spirits — or at least, in their ability to communi- 
cate with mortals — to its numerous illustrations of this most exalted 
intercourse. 

The twenty-eighth chapter of the First Book of Chronicles, contains 
minute specifications, from David to his son Solomon, respecting the 
Temple and its furniture, all of which the former claimed to have 
received in writing from a spiritual source. David concludes his descrip- 
tion thus : " All, the Lord made me understand, in writing, by hand' 
upon me — all the works of this pattern."* While I have no disposition 
to dogmatize on a subject of this nature, I must be allowed to observe 
that the expression " by hand upon me," may be understood to imply- 
that David was subjected to manipulations similar to the modern mes- 
meric process, and that he was thus qualified to receive and compre- 
hend the plans of the building and the vessels to be employed in the 
Temple-service. If it be insisted that David's acknowledgment, that 
he derived his instructions from the Lord, renders these suggestions inad- 
missible, I have only to remark that devout men in all ages, have been 

* I take the liberty to omit the supplied words for the reason that they proba- 
bly obscure the sense. 

13 



194 BPaTTAN AND KICHJIOND. 

accustomed to refer their very existence, ■witli all its gifts and posses- 
sions, to the same Divine Source. 

Ezekiel was entranced " by the river Chebar," one of the tributaries 
of the Euphrates, where he witnessed some remarkable displays of Spir- 
itual power. The prophet declares that a spirit entered into hirn^ he 
records the words which were spoken on the occasion, and relates that 
during the interview ' a, roll^ written toithin and without^'' was given to 
him by a spirit, only the hand being visible at the time it was presented. 
(Ezekiel, second chapter.) 

While Belshazzar, surrounded by a thousand of his lords, was indulg- 
ing his vain ambition at a royal revel it is said that, " In the same hour 
came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against" the candle- 
stick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace ; and the king saw 
the part of the hand that wrote." (Daniel, fifth chapter.) 

The Apocalypse consists of a number of spiritual communications 
addressed to the churches of Asia Minor. But the Revelations were 
not directly inspired by the Divine Mind. On the contrary, they 'ir-ere 
expressly dictated by subordinate spirits. The internal evidence on this 
point is very clear, and there seems to be no room to indulge a rational 
doubt respecting the mode of communication. Banished from the soci- 
ety of the great world, and left to meditation amid the solitudes of Pat- 
mos, the devout spirit of the Revelator naturally sought intercourse with 
kindred spirits. He became a medium, and that he was impelled by 
spiritual influence to record what he witnessed, appears from the frequent 
command of the spirits to " Write." That John was entranced by 
spiritual agency, while thus employed, must be inferred from such 
■ expressions as the following : " I was in the spirit on the Lord's day ; " 
" And immediately I was in the spirit ; " " And he carried me away in 
■'che spirit into the wilderness ;" and, again, " He carried me away in 
the spirit to a great and high mountain." Similar expressions frequently 
occur thoughout the book, which certainly can not be accepted as the 
word of God in any sense that precludes the intermed.iate agency of inferior 
'natures. This is sufficiently manifest from the following passage : " And 
I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and 
seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed 
me these things. Then saith he unto me, ' See thou do it not ; for I am 
thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which 
■keep the sayings of this book : worship God.' " (Rev. xsii, 8, 9.) 
That the spirit who inspired John and presented these visions, was not 
'God, is evident frsm his declining to receive divine honors. That he 



A DISCUSSION. 



195 



was a former inhabitant of the earth, and one of the Hebrew prophets, 
can not be denied by those who are disposed to accredit the explicit 
declaration of the Spirit himself. 

I will now invite your attention to some more recent examples, with 
a view to further illustrate the agency of Spirits, as exhibited in this 
mode of communication. The following case was originally published 
in the Camhidge Chronicle : 

A medium, -who could -^-rite with one hand, while he held a book in the other, 
from which he read at the same time, attributed the phenomena to electricity. 
The writing was always afac simile of that of the person from whom the com- 
munication purported to come. On one occasion, as he approached the table, it 
started off from him a foot or more. Again, attempting to reach it, it started to 
the other side of the room, and there remained in an inverted position. At the 
same time a communication was received at Waltham, by an acquaintance and 
medium, which stated that " Lewis" — the name of the individual above referred 
to — " is making sport of us at Watertown, and we will have nothing more to do 
with him." This declaration, made at a distance from the place where the indi- 
vidual it concerned was at the lime, was singularly enough confirmed by the fact 
that, from that time, he has not been able to act as a medium. 

Eev. J. B. Wolff, in a letter addressed to me under date of Wheel- 
ing, Va., Nov. 7,1852, states that Dr. B., a graduate of a Grerm an 
medical university, who now resides in that city, has two media in his 
family. The Doctor is a man of distinguished scientific attainments, but 
of a skeptical turn of mind. For a long time he was indisposed to ac- 
credit the claims of the phenomena to a Spiritual origin, and, finally, to 
satisfy himself, instituted the ordeal described by Mr. W., which wag 
substantially as follows : ' Having emptied a trunk of its contents, the 
Doctor placed a clean sheet of paper in it, and locked the trunk with 
his own hand. He then deposited the key to the trunk in a bureau 
drawer, which he also locked, putting the key of said drawer in his 
pocket. The family, including Mrs. B. and a young lady — the two 
media referred to — thereupon went down stairs to tea. When the 
evening repast was over, the Doctor rose from the table, went to the 
bureau, opened the drawer, took the key he had deposited therein and 
opened the trunk, when, to his surprise, he found mysterious writings 
on the paper. The Doctor states that the fluid used was not dry twenty- 
four hours after the paper was taken from the trunk. The entire fami- 
Iv are willing to be qualified that these statements are literally true ; 
and that but one key for the trunk and one for the bureau is in the 
house.' 

The Editor of the Christian Frcemnn, publi bed in Boston, though 



196 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

somewhat iaclined to dispute the validity of the Spiritual claim, relates 
the following, which he assures us is strictly true : 

We were at the house of Mr. Carlisle W. Capron, of Woonsocket, a few weeks 
ago, where, from Mrs. Capron, we learned the following facts : Her daughter, 
who was a good writing medium, was sitting with others in a circle, on the 25th 
of February last, when what purported to be spirits in communication, announced 
through Miss Capron that a stranger had appeared among them, and was desir- 
ous of communicating. The name of the stranger-spirit was called for, and was 
giyen through the medium as "Angeline Juliette Kimball." She stated that she 
was the daughter of Daniel H. Kimball, Esq., of East Kingston, N. H. She de- 
sired that a letter should be written to her father, who was still living in that 
place, informing him that she lived in the Sprit- world, was happy, &c. That 
name was utterly unknown to all present at the sitting, nor did any of them 
know-, even, that there was a town of that name in New-Hampshire. But a let- 
ter was written and addressed as directed, and sent by mail on its mission. Soon 
a letter was received in answer, dated March 5th, signed by Daniel H. Kimball, 
of East Kingston, N. H., stating that he had a daughter by the name of Ange- 
line Juliette, who died at the time stated by the mysterious communication. 

Dr. E. B. Barker, of Beaver, Pa., a gentleman of vigorous mind and 
energetic will, is a writing medium, and his personal experience fur- 
nishes some most convincing proofs of Spiritual intervention in the af- 
fairs of men. I will here adduce a single example, extracted from a 
letter which I received from Dr. Barker about the first of September 
last : 

On Saturday morning, July 24, 1852, I awoke unusually, at about 
three o'clock. I tried to compose myself to sleep, but was prevented 
by a cacoethes, saying, "Write, write." T resisted this, for I had lost 
faith — though " write, write," was as pertinacious an impulse as mine 
to sleep. But this propensity, proclivity, or whatever else you may 
deem it, was so strong, that I finally yielded. I rose, lit my candle, 
and sat down to ink and paper. I adjured that both name and the 
truth should only be given. Instantly my pen went off, unwilled by me, 
and the following was written : " James W. Barker : U .... J .... is 
ill, and will die soon. You will be summoned to New-York in a few 
days. Let this be the test." .... About the same hour on Sunday 
morning, July 25, I was awakened, and urged mentally to write. This 
I steadily .resisted, though the importunity was strong. I refused as 
strongly as I was urged, and morning sent me to my avocations. . . . 
At 3 o'clock, P. M., July 26, the Telegraphic Agent came with two 
dispatches. The first had been sent on Sunday, July 25, and had been 
detained by some disorder on the line beyond Syracuse. It announced 
the illness of U. J., and that he would not survive many hours. The 



A DISCUSSION. 197 

second dispatch, July 26, 1852, contained the following : " U. J. died 
fifteen minutes past nine, this morning. Come on immediately." 

Such was the result of this case of cacoethes scnbendi^ a medical gen- 
tleman of undoubted intelligence and veracity being the witness. I 
leave the fact for you to dispose of at your leisure, confident that the 
subject will not shrink from the scalpel. 

The experience of Hon. James F. Simmons, of Rhode Island, fur- 
nishes some extraordinary facts of this class, one of which is certainly 
among the most remarkable on record. It will be recollected that the 
particulars were communicated by Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, in a 
letter to Horace Greeley, and that they were published in the January 
number of Putnam's American Magazine. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons were 
one day in presence of a medium, when some writing was exhibited 
which had been executed by invisible hands in a closed drawer. The 
writing purported to have been executed by their son, James D. Sim- 
mons, who died some time before in California. It evidently resembled 
the chirography of young Simmons, but not so closely as to satisfy his 
parents. While the parties were thus in doubt, respecting the author- 
ship of the writing, the presence of the son was announced by the sounds, 
and Mr. Simmons at once proposed that the spirit " should, then and 
there, affix his signature to the suspicious document." 

" lu order to facilitate the operation, Mr. S. placed the closed points of a pair 
of scissors in the hands of the medium, and dropped his pencil through one of the 
rings or bows, the paper being placed beneath. Her hand presently began to 
tremble, and it was with difficulty tliat she could retain her hold of the scissors. 
Mr. Simmons then took them into his own hand, and again dropped his pencil 
through the ring. It could not readily be sustained in this position. After a 
few moments, however, it stood as if firmly poised and perfectly still. It then 
began slowly to move. Mr. S. saw the tetters traced Ijeneath his eyes — the 
words J. D. Simmons were distinctly and deliberately written, and the hand- 
writing was afac simile of his son's signature. 

" But what Mr. S. regards as the most astonishing part of this seeming mira- 
cle, is yet to be told. Bending down to scrutinize the writing more closely, he 
observed, just as the last word was finished, that the top of the pencil leaned to 
the right ; he thought it was about to slip through the ring, but, to his infinite 
astonishment, he saw the point slide slowly back along the word ' Simmons' 
till it rested over the letter i, where it deliberately imprinted a dot ! This was 
a punctilio utterly unthought of." 

In this case, the civil and social position of the witness, and his charac- 
ter for intelligence, candor and discrimination, are such that it requires 
much more credulity to doubt than to believe. If you deny the pres- 



198 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

ence and agency of the invisible James D. Simmons, you are bound in 
candor to account for the occurrence. 

Mr. Edward Hooper, of Fitchburg, Mass., is a writing medium, and 
has been favored with many unmistakable proofs of a more than mortal 
intelligence, one of which, communicated in a letter to Charles Part- 
ridge, Esq., I will introduce in this connection. This fact, though of a 
convincing nature and well authenticated, has been withheld from the 
public until now. Mr. Hooper writes that, " On the ISth of March 
last, (1851,) the spirits caused me to write as follows: '■Your fatke'r, 
Thomas Hooper, is dead.'' I could hardly believe this, as I had just re- 
ceived a letter from Europe informing me that my father was in good 
health. But the spirits insisted that my ' father died on the 13th of 
Marqji, 1851.' This communication was made known to several indi- 
viduals, at the time, among whom I will mention Rev. Charles Wood- 
house, of Fitchburg. My father was an Episcopal clergyman, and 
lived in England. About three weeks after the spirits announced his 
death, 'I received a letter from my sister communicating the intelligence 
that mj father was taken suddenly ill and died on the 13th of March — 
the precise time given by the spirits.'' " 

Mr. Woodhouse is also a minister of the Episcopal church, and, if I 

am rightly informed, pastor of the society whereof Mr. Edward Hooper 

is a member. A letter of inquiry, respecting the facts narrated above, 

was addressed to Mr. Woodhouse, which was promptly responded to by 

the Reverend gentleman, in the following letter : 

" Fitchburg, Mass., Feb. 22, 1852. 
"Mr. Charles Partridge: 

Bear Sir : In reply to your letter of inquiry concerning Mr. Hooper's state- 
ment to you, I will say that, on or about the 20th of March last, Mr. Hooper 
told me that he had, for a number of days, been impelled to write, ' Your father, 
Thomas Hoojier, is dead,' and that, on inquiry of the Agency which influenced 
him to write this, when his father died .' he was further impressed to write, 
'■March 13//*.' He p.lso told me that, ' he thought he was wrongly impressed, 
because he had but a short time before received a letter from England, where 
his father lived, and at the time the letter was written, his father was in his 
usual health.' 

"A few weeks after Mr. Hooper made these statements to me, he showed me a 
letter from a sister in England, informing him that his father died ' the 13th of 
March.' Of the genuineness of the letter from his sister, I will also add, there 
can be no question. These are the simple facts in relation to this case, as I know 
them, and further ' this deponent saith not.' 

" Yours respectfully, Charles Woodhouse." 

I will now attend to the modus operandi of the writings. And here 
it would be interesting to dwell at far greater length than comports with 



A DISCUSSION. 199 

my present limits. Circumstances admonisli me to.be brief and the 
following general analysis must suffice : 

1. The mysterious agents act on the nerves of motion, by distributing 
the electrical forces from the vital batteries, in such a manner as to gov- 
ern the flexors and extensors, causing the hand, when the medium is 
under complete control, to move with the same precision as if subject to 
the action of his own will. The cases of Dr. Barker and Mr. Hooper 
afford examples of this description. 

2. Another class of media are psychologically influenced, or the 
thoughts of the spirit are communicated by a kind of intromission. 
Sometimes the effect of the influx is so sudden and powerful as to very 
nearly resemble the most vivid impressions made on the senses. 

3. A third class are controlled physically and mentally, the action on 
the body and mind being simultaneous. It often occurs that the hand 
and other members of the body are moved, by spiritual impulsion, to 
confirm the ideas suggested to the mind, or to answer the unspoken 
thoughts of a third party. 

4. In some cases, as appears from the testimony of many reliable 
witnesses, the writing is executed without human hands. Luminous cur- 
rents appear to emanate from certain objects, or they are discharged 
from the sphere that surrounds the spirit. These converge to a focal 
point in which the pen, or other implement, is suspended by a species of 
electro-magnetism, and is thus made to obey the volition of the unseen 
scribe. The experience of Mr. Fowler presents several conspicuous 
examples. The case reported by Kev. J. B. Wolff, and the remarkable 
instance of Spirit-writing in the presence of the Hon. Mr. Simmons, to 
which your attention has been invited, are of this class. 

5. Other examples indicate that the toriting may be exemted by the 
hand of the Spirit, which is sometimes rendered visible, and indeed the . 
whole person of the writer, as well as the peculiar process of writing, 
may be disclosed, either by the opening of the interior through the 
external sense, or because the spirit attracts to itself, from the surround- 
ing atmosphere, elements which render its form perceptible by the phys- 
ical organ. It is recorded that Belshazzar distinctly saw the hand that 
executed the writing on the wall, and it is equally certain that Mr. A. 
J. Davis, Edward P. Fowler and others, not unfrequently distinguish 
the entire forms of their spiritual visitors. 

I have already exceeded my limits and must hasten to a conclusion.. 
The most elaborate argument, would hardly render the facts more forci- 



200 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

ble than their simplest statement, and I therefore leave you to battle 
with the facts themselves. If they can be accounted for on mundane 
principles, be pleased to expound the laws whereon they depend. If any 
number of them are to be referred to spirits, and others to natural causes, 
I will thank you to name the 'particular examples of each kind^ and to 
mark the distinctions which determine your classification. The facts 
assert their own claims in the most significant language, and will, I am 
assured, carry conviction to others if not to yourself. That they greatly 
transcend the inherent forces of matter, and the accredited powers of 
mind, in its earthly relations, is as clear as that light emanates from 
luminous bodies. 

Hoping that an honest love of Truth, and a devout desire to honor 
its claims, may be permitted to actuate all our endeavors, I remain, 

Yours sincerely, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



REPLY TO S. B. BUITTAN 

NUMBER THREE. 

My Dear Sir : You still continue to argue, while the vital points 
in your position are assumed. 1. The laws of gravitation prevent spir- 
its from remaining near our earth, and eternally prevent their return. 
2. All the laws of animal organization utterly preclude the idea of spir- 
its breathing in our atmosphere, it being a vastly grosser body than 
their own. 

Till Spiritualists attempt, at least, to show the falsity of both these 
propositions, no argument they may present can legitimately apply to 
their theory. For five years the rappings have been spreading, and the 
whole force of the excitement has hung on the fact that departed spirits 
are near our earth — in our rooms — with us — touching us — moving mat- 
ter, and impressing mind. This is a new application of the laws of grav- 
itation, but no logic can break its force till it is shown that spirit will- 
force can overcome the entire force of our atmosphere and Ireathe a fluid 
that holds a relation to their vitality wholly repugnant to all our knowl- 
edge — of the laws of mind and matter. When these two facts are fair- 
ly and clearly impressed on the human mind, it will be as ridiculous to 
suppose the return of spirits to our globe, as it would be to teach that 
by loill-force we could jump to the moon. 

Your allusions to David, Ezekiel, and the Revelators, require no 
comment from me ; you must settle the fact of their being mediums, if 
it seems important to your purpose. I will remark, however, that the 
man who built the perpetual motion in the "Ashery," received it in a 
vision ; he " saw it floating in the air in pieces " — and it was, he insist- 
ed, the identical machine seen by the prophet on the river Chebar, and 
had wheels within wheels. 

A class of phenomena are presented in your third letter, which in- 
volves the strongest mist-ical points in all the " manifestations " The 
fact from the Cavohridge Chronicle, in which a medium wrote out that 
"Lev/is" — then some distance from the place — was making /tt?i of 
them (the spirits), and they would have nothing more to do with him. 
The medium was en rapport with the mind of" Lewis," and took the 



202 A DISCUSSION. 

fact from his mind. Suppose a plate to be found with the exact like- 
ness of " Lewis " on it, in a strange place ; the logical inference would 
be that some Daguerrean artist had copied it from his face. So in this 
case, the likeness written out was a fac simile of his mind, and proves 
just what the other case does, that the medium copied from his mind 
as the artist did from his face. Mental refiedion, my friend. He lost 
his mediumship, you say. A good medium recently told me that on 
falling from a house he lost his power to write for four months, and 
then he regained it. " IIog-Devil," who attended the boy "Warren, 
has left tho boy ; he is no longer a medium. A pumpkin was placed 
on the table ; some force threw it up to the floor overhead. Mr. A., a 
furious Methodist, asked the spirit if he would show himself down cel- 
lar ; he replied he would. A. went down, pulled off his coat, and 
rolled up his sleeves, and bid his hogship to exhibit — but he backed out 
— A. saw nothing. The little boy was alartned^ and dare not go down 
cellar, which prob;).bly changed his condition. I have, in a number of 
instances, by impressing the medium that it was electricity, prevented 
their writing till their faith returned. " Lewis '' was impressed by the 
medium who disliked his sport-making. The facts by Mrs. Capron, 
from the spirit of "Angeline Juliette Kimball," are explained on the 
same principle — the law of ew rapport. The medium took the fact from 
minds at East-Kingston. The fact of Dr. E,. B. Barker, of Beaver, 
Pa., is the work of the same law The case of Mr. Edward Hooper, oj" 
Fitchburg, is referable to the same source. The medium e7i rapport 
with his friends in England — or the family at the death of his father 
would impress the absent son — the deep impress of grief in the one 
reaches and impresses the friend and brother in Fitehburgh — the medi- 
um en rapport with him unravels the impression or absorbs it from his 
mind and transfers it to paper. Numerous instances occur along the 
sea coast of families who have absent friends — who are suddenly affect- 
ed by the impression that a father, brother or son is dead — they some- 
times — nay, often — see the spirit of the departed. The agony of death 
fixes the mind on the friends at home, and mind impresses mind through 
space, and the dying friends often so impress the family or some mem- 
ber of it that the image is reflected and seen exterior to the body. 

Mr. Mosher, a neighbor of mine, and a Spiritualist, states that while 
on the ocean — suddenly a sailor in the midst of a storm, cried out, 
" My father is dead and he stands there on the yard-arm." They 
marked the hour., and he saw the specter at the hour of his father's 
dissolution. All these facts are referable to the law of en rapport and 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND 20." 

mental reflection, and are caused as the sounds were "by the father of 
Mr. Olcott — before mentioned. 

The strongest case of this kind on record, is that accorded to A. J. 
Davis He announced the discovery of a planet beyond the orbit ot 
Herschell — this announcement was in March, and the planet was not 
discovered or given to the public as discovered till September following. 
I am not aware that any higher origin than mere clairvoyance is claimed 
for this — and it is perfectly certain that no claim to spiritual intelligence 
can be based on it. The astronomers of Europe had long believed in 
the existence of such a planet, and we have only to suppose Mr. Davis 
en rapport with their minds to get a perfect solution of the facts this 
side of any super-mundane influence. 

Swedenborg, while living, wrote to Mr. Wesley and informed him 
that in the Spirit-world he was informed that he (Mr. Wesley) was 
anxious to see him. Mr. W. said that was the fact, but he had never 
mentioned it to any person living. Swedenborg in his abnormal mood 
— passed into rapport with the mind of Wesley and absorbed the fact 
from his mind. Some will ask if S. had not the power to distinguish 
between Wesley's mind and spirits. I answer, no — and daily facts are 
occurring that settles beyond dispute this position. The mind in these 
moods seems only to come in contact with mental influences, with no 
power to discern the physical objects with which those mental influences 
are connected. Swedenborg mistook this law of our own minds for a 
law of the Spirit-world, and says that spirits can not see physical objects. 
Dr. B. P. Bristol, Danville, N. Y., says in a communication in the 
Telegraph that a medium wrote out, as she supposed, a communica- 
tion from a spirit — and Dr. Bristol recognized it at once as an extract 
from Davis' philosophy of the manifestations. The medium was en rap- 
port with the book and did not kn.^w it — thought it a spirit. 

Mr. Davis himself is reported to have made a similar mistake in 
Cleveland. In his superior state he was impressed that Mr. Mann, who 
was to be in Cleveland in a few days, would speak thus and so, on 
Woman's rights — it turned out that he took his impressions from a re- 
^or^ of Mr. Mann's speech in the New-York Trihtone. His enemies 
charged him with having read that paper's report — this I do not believe 
— but the fact shows that Mr. Davis in his abnormal state could not 
distinguish between Mr. Mann's manuscript and the Tribune, that is 
all. The mind in all these moods distinguishes nothing but mental 
dynamic forces and treats them all as spiritual. Psychometric experi- 
ments on letters show the same law. The mind absorbs the mental 



204 A DISCUSSION. 

dynamic force of the letter, but takes no cognizance of her being 
impressed by the letter — any more than the medium recognizes the 
fact that she is being impressed by a book, a letter, or some human 
mind. 

In a recent number of the Telegraph I saw a statement that a 
medium wrote some twelve pages — verbatim et literatim — from a hook — 
and signed a spirit's name to it. She could not distinguish between 
them. These examples might be multiplied ad infinitum. 

In these examples we get a solution of imitating names from man- 
uscripts — and also of the fact that mediums often give fac similes of 
hand-writings they never saw. , Hon. J. R. Giddings, member of 
Congress, a year since received a communication from what purported 
to be the spirit of F. Sutliff, a former law-partner who died some 
twelve years since. The medium had never seen Mr. S.'s hand-writing, 
and was quite young when he died — yet the signature was recognized 
by two members of the bar — at first sight. The medium — en rapport 
with Mr. G.'s mind — copied the name from his memory. All these 
cases show that a signature is copied more correctly than any other 
parts of writing. The signature being always more distinctly impressed 
on the mind of the medium, or the mind en rapport with the mind of 
the medium, they always get a more perfect copy of that than of the 
general character of the writing. 

The writing executed by the professed spirit of Mr. Simmons' son, 
is of this kind — and as you regard that as the most remarkable ease 
on record, I venture an explanation. Miss Catherine E. Beecher has 
in the Tribune the following on willing tables to move. She says : 

" I invited this young lady and another in the vicinity, who was a ' medium,' 
to experiment with me alone, at my room. In a few minutes my table began to 
move about. I requested the young ladies to will it to move in certain direc- 
tions, and found that it was under the control of their volition, but only at cer- 
tain times. At other times it seemed to move without being guided by tbem, 
and, as I conjectured by cwrrfiwfs o/eZecirJct^,?/, that interrupted their power 
for a time and then ceased and they recovered it aga'n. 

"We then tried spelling with the alphabet, and with success. One of the 
young ladies, conjecturing that in this, too, her will might have some influence 
without mentioning her design, willed that the word ' mother ' should be spelled 
by the knocks. It was done. We tried other words in the same way and 
with uniform success. The knockings seemed to be on the surface of the table. 
Either one of the mediums would mentally will to have a word spelled, and then 
the other, without knowing what it was, would call over t'.e alyhibet, and the 
word selected was uniformly spelled. A gentleman and several ladies were called 
in, and the thing was repeated with the same success." 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND 205 

The will must, in all these cases, come in contact with the table 
through the agency of the nerve aura of the medium. Take, now, 
Mr. Simmons' case. He holds up the pen by the aid of a pair of 
scissors^the impulse in his mind (his son's name being the image which 
is to be refiected) sends the nerve aura from his brain down the arm 
along the scizzors on to his pencil — and then the movement begins in the 
pencil — the mind having control of it in this manner. In writing with 
the hand, the mind impelse the nerve aura through the muscle — the 
muscle or hand seizes the pen and we write — the hand obeying the 
impulse of the will through the agency of the imponderable media of 
muscular motion. In this case the will seizes the pencil through the 
same agency, sending it over the scizzors and pencil, and then moving 
it — as it moves a hand when seized through the same agent. The one 
act is as mysterious to my mind as the other. The dot was placed 
over the i in the name, and Mirs Whitman asks how that can be dis- 
posed of, as the mind of Mr. Simmons contem.plated no such act. — 
but did suggest the other. The writing the name and dotting the i are 
all inseparably connected in his mind — and would follow as naturally in 
such a case as the dotting would in his own nam.e written by Mr. Sim- 
mons himself. It was a fart of the image of his son's name stamped 
on the mind and the rejiection is as natural as that a wart or mole should 
be reflected on the plate of the artist when a human image is reflected. 

I can not see any mystery in this act — and while others seem to find 
in it reasons for belief in an eternal future, I only see that mind can 
will brute matter. 

Mention is made in Mr. Simmons' case of the exhibition of writings 
"executed in a closed drawer." You mention a case occurring in 
Wheeling, Va., in the house of Dr. B., a German physician. The 
writings were " executed in a trunk locked," and the key to it secured 
by another lock and key. The ink " did not dry in twenty-four hours 
after taken from the trunk." Curious. Grive me the communication 
and the character of the medium, their mental peculiarities, and I 
will explain it. As the facts are related nothing can be said for it 
comprises a fragment only of the transaction. The only fully detailed 
case of that class on record is found in your reply to my first letter. 
The case of Mr. E. P. Fowler and the Hebrew /cic simile you pub- 
lish in Telegraph number twenty-two. In the letter under review in 
proposition number five you allude to all these cases — by saying that 
" these examples indicate that the writing may be executed by the 
hand of the spirit — which is sometimes rendered visible. You quote 



206 A DISCUSSION. 

Belshazzar, A. J. Davis, and E. P. Fowler, as witnesses on this point. 
A candid expose should be given to such marvelous facts as are here 
put forth as the work of hands not made of flesh and blood. 

Will Mr. Davis, Fowler, Daniel, and Belshazzar, stand by while I 
take this case to pieces. In Telegraph number twenty-two Mr. Fow- 
ler says, " The first one I received was, as I am informed through the 
kindness of Prof. Bush., a quotation from the Old Testament, written 
in Hebrew. " The execution of this occurred about three o'clock in 
the afternoon, soon after I had returned from my business. I w&s.alone 
in my room., when, through the sounds which then occurred in my pres- 
sence, I was requested to leave the room for the space of five minutes — 
during which interval they (the spirits) promised and attempted to 
write. I obeyed their request, and went into a room ielow where sat 
my sister. I told her what had transpired, and at the expiration of five 
minutes we both ascended to the room. Instead of finding, as we had 
conjectured we should, some directions written in English, we discovered 
this Hebrew quotation, the ink on the paper being still unalsorhed.'''' 
Now Daniel and Belshazzar will remark here that Mr. E. P. Fowler 
was so ignorant of Hehrew that he did not know what he had got till the 
" kindness of Prof. Bush " informed him. This communication is not 
given in the Telegraph. Subsequent to this, on " Saturday nighty'''' 
a number of spirits came into Mr. Fowler's room and wrote by the aid 
of the " battery," and a. fac-simile is published in Telegraph number 
twenty-two — in Hebrew characters — quoted as from Daniel xii, 12, 13. 
Of this writing Prof. Bush remarks (Shekinah, Vol. I. p. 305,) as fol- 
lows : " The first of these manuscripts was in Hebrew, containing a, few 
verses from the last chapter of the prophet Daniel. This was correctly 
written with the exception of several apparently arbitrary omissions., and 
one rather violent transposition of a word, from an it.pper to a lower line." 
I have a copy of a Hebrew Bible lying before me. T have submitted 
this Hebrew to a German Jew — Mr. Millner, merchant in our place — 
and also to the opinion of two graduates from Yale College, and present 
the public with a statement of one of these — Rev. Wm. Garter, Wau- 
kegan. 111. — on the subject. He says : " It is an attempt to copy from 
the Hebrew Bible by one who was ignorant that Hebrew reads from 
right to left, instead of left to right, as the English does. Consequently 
begets together parts of the 9th, lOth, 11th and \2th verses, without 
inserting the whole from any one of them. 1. His writing begins in the 
midile of the line of the 9th verse, and he gives the right hand portion of 
it, thus giving us the last part of the 9th verse instead of the beginning 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 207 

of the 10th ! 2. At the close, he makes a corresponding nn'sta'ke, and 
gives us the left hand portion of the line instead o-f the right — thus giving 
the beginning instead of the end of the 11th. 3. A worse blunder still 
he commits by transferring the right hand extremity of the last line liut 
one to the left hand of the last line. In English it would make no 
difference — but in Hebrew it was transferring the last of the 10th 
verse — ' shall understand '—and putting it after the last word he copies 
from the 12th verse — ' three.' The two whole lines as published in the 
Telegraph contained parls of verses 10th, 11th, and 12th, but the whole 
of no one verse — while the part of a line at the bottom is a transposed 
part of the 12th verse. Not a word of the 13th verse gets in at all. His 
Hebrew translated reads as follows in English : 9th, ' and sealed are the 
words until the time of the end.' 10th, 'Many but the wicked shall 
do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise.' 
11th, 'And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, 
and the abominations that maketh desolate set up — there shall be days 
a thousand.' 12th, ' Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to days a 
thousand — tkrce shall understand. 

" To cap the climax, he puts the Hebrew period — the English colon. 
— at the beginning of the 11th and 12th verses — mistaking the begin- 
ning for the end of the verse." Compare this with Daniel, xiith chap- 
ter, 12th and 13th. " The nominative many comes after its verbs in 
Hebrew, so that it happens to get in, while they are left out."'^ 

We are informed through the circle that Ben Franklin professes to 
have been present and aided in directing the battery by his will- 
Daniel has subscribed his name to the document and claims to be its 
author. Numerous persons certify to the good character of Mr. Fow- 
ler — while Daniel and Franklin both bore testimony against wrong while 
on earth — one faced the lions of old and the other helped whip the Brit- 
ish lion while in this sphere — but for all this who believes that they have 
become such stupid dunces as to make such work as the above quoting 
Hebrew .'' Turn to your Hebrew Bible — it reads from top to bottom 
and from right to left^ and lay before you the Telegraph, and the Uni- 
verse can not prevent any candid reader from seeing that whoever wrote 
that Hebrew began at the left hand at the top by zigzag marks, and 
copied the last part of the ninth verse — then returned to the left 
and copied the two next lines to the period — then transferred the last word 
or phraze at the right hand to the beginning of the next line, at the left 
— then copied to the period. The zags below show that Daniel was 
written from left to right. 

^ See Appendix, N^ote 0. 



208 A DISCUSSION. 

To pretend for a moment that sucli a piece of nameless bungling as 
that is to be ascribed to the spirit of a departed Hebrew who used 
to do things right in spite of the world while in it, is asking more 
than human credulity is willing to grant. To wind up, Franklin is made 
to endorse the act — thus involving the spirit of the inimitable old phi- 
losopher in a transaction which disgraces the very name of Hebrew lit- 
erature. What ! the prophet Daniel — quoting Daniel xii, 12 and 13, to 
edify the world — and making such a botch of it as to mix up parts of 
the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th verses in away to convert them into per- 
fect nonsense when translated into English. Old Ben. endorse such a 
foolish blunder as that after a run of half a century in the higher 
circles of the Spirit-state and associating with prophets and spirits of the 
just made perfect, and then ask us to believe in a future, on such a 
sublime and unutterable sham ! The dignity of true manhood recoils 
from such nonsense, and scouts it as an abuse of common sense — as a 
mockery to human sanity. Daniel ! who lifted his windows in the 
sight of a bloody tyrant, and prayed three times a day, with a loud voice 
in the face of the race — spitting defiance in the teeth of death — the 
noble old Hebrew whose touching story stirs all the sublime elements 
within us — crouching at midnight with Yankees and Dutchmen into a 
garret — and there befuddle a young man's legs and make them stiff, and 
cap the climax with such a piece of literary chicanery ! 

Will Prof. Bush tell us how it is, and what he meant when he said 
that was " correctly copied " with but slight exceptions .^ I accuse no 
man — but such a fact goes home with the annihilating force of a thun- 
der-bolt — scattering such facts on the wings of the wind. 

Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



BRITTAS' AHB EICHMOHD'S BISCUSSIOK 

NUMBER FOUR. 

LUMINOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF SPIRITS. 

The nature and relations of mind and matter, and the experience of 
men in all ages, witness to us that the Immortalized must be able to 
exercise, at least a limited control over the potential agents in Nature. 
Even the shackles of mortality can not wholly restrain or prevent the 
exercise of these God-like powers. If spirits can, and do, produce a 
variety of physical eifects, it will not be deemed strange that myste- 
rious LIGHTS are among the sensible proofs of their presence and agen- 
cy. Such luminous manifestations have occurred in all ages. While, 
in numerous cases, the weak and credulous have been led to attach a 
particular spiritual significance to purely natural phenomena , it is firmly 
believed that the stubborn and incredulous have as frequently resisted 
the truth, inasmuch as such phenomena have often transpired under 
circumstances which utterly preclude their reference to accident, or 
mere material forces. The facts in this department have served to 
excite inquiry, to inspire joy, or to awaken apprehension, according to 
the mood of the observer, and the supposed relations of the phenomena 
themselves. But whether viewed as subjects of curious speculation, as 
symbols of Divine realities, or as omens of melancholy events, they have 
not ceased to be regarded with peculiar interest. 

I will now, in pursuance of my general plan, proceed to illustrate this 
phase of the manifestations, and will first solicit the attention of your- 
self and the reader to some striking examples of spiritual illumination, 
described by the Scripture-writers. The first and second cases are from 
the experience of the Jewish law-giver. While Moses was employed in. 
keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, he witnessed a remarka- 
ble phenomenon of this kind, which was produced by a spirit and is 
thus recorded : " And the angd [messenger] of the Lord appeared 
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush ; and he looked, 
and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." 
(Exodus iii, 2.) The second case, recorded by the leader of Israel, as- 
having occurred in presence of all the people, was " the pillar of jwe.^''' 

14 



210 -A DISCUSSION. 

which was supposed to have been presented by direct spiritual agency 
and for a specific purpose. — (Chapter xix.) 

The Evangelist records the fact that, on one occasion, two men, who 
had lived on earth centuries before, came to Jesus and three of his per- 
sonal friends, while they were together in a mountain, and ' a bright 
cloud overshadowed the company,' and the face of Jesus, in the splen- 
dor of his transfiguration, " did shine as the sun and his raiment was 
white as the light." — (Matt, xvii.) 

Another luminous demonstration of spiritual presence is said to have 
occurred while Peter was preaching, on the day of Pentecost, and is 
thus recorded in the Acts of the Apostles : " And there appeared unto 
them cloven tongues, like as o{ fire, and it sat upon each of them." 
It further appears from the account that " they all began to speak with 
other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance." That the demonstra- 
tions, on that occasion, were apparently confused and disorderly, seems 
probable from the fact that, the materialists of that day imputed th«^ 
phenomena to dninkeriTiess. — (Chapter ii.) 

Peter was subsequently arrested for preaching on spiritual subjects, 
and especially for creating an excitement among the people. Bound in 
chains and immured within the walls of a dungeon, he was quietly sleep- 
ing, with a soldier on either side of him and a guard before the door, 
" And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him and a light shined 
in the prison." — (Chapter xii.) 

Paul, in his remarkable address before Agrippa, relates what he wit- 
nessed while on his way to execute the commission of the chief priests. 
"At mid-day, king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the 
brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them which jour- 
^neyed with me " — Chap, xxvi.) 

The facts already cited were ascribed by those who witnessed them 
to spiritual agency, and surely no rational Spiritualist will be disposed 
to question, either the possibility of their occurrence or the credibility 
of their peculiar claims. It should be remembered that these lights 
■were accompanied with other phenomena, such as the occurrence of 
voices, the moving of ponderable objects, etc., and that the coincident 
: manifestations all contribute to sustain the spiritual idea respecting their 
'Origin. Will you, my dear sir, notice each of the foregoing examples, 
and if the witnesses, and the millions whose faith has rested on theii- 
■testimony for ages, have all been deceived, will you give us the true so- 
.lation of these mysteries and thus disabuse the world ? 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 211 

Justinus Kevner relates the following personal experience : 
" On the 8th of December, at seven o'clock, being myself in the ante-room, 
from which I could see into Mrs. H 's bed-room, I perceived there a cloud- 
like form — a sort of pillar of cloud — with a head but no defined outline. I hasti- 
ly caught up a candle, and rushing into the room, found her with her eyes star- 
ing at the spot where I had seen the figure ; but to me it was no longer visible. 
This would naturally be the consequence of the bright light. The room was pre- 
viously but imperfectly lighted, and the white cloud-like form was more percept- 
ible on the dark ground. When I inquired what she was looking at, she replied, 

that the specter of N had been there and given her a commission for his 

eon."* 

The supposition that this was an optical illusion seems altogether im- 
probable, for the following reasons : 1. Kerner was not a seer — had 
never witnessed anything of the kind in his life — but emphatically de- 
clares that he saw the luminous object. 2. The immortal visiter was 
fully recognized by the Seeress. 3. The same spirit had succeeded in 
rendering himself distinctly visible to a number of other persons. 

4. N came to attend to something that concerned his son and 

actually accomplished his business. That the form, as presented to the 
external vision of Kerner, was indefinite in outline below the head, is 
what the Spiritual philosophy would lead us to infer might be the case, 
and it also agrees with the testimony of many Spirit-seers, who repre- 
sent that, while spirits may at pleasure manifest other portions of their 
forms, yet when their presence is disclosed to men, it frequently hap- 
pens that the head is fii'st and most distinctly perceived, for the reason 
that the more vital parts radiate a stronger light. Mrs. Crowe relates a 
number of facts illustrative of this phase of the manifestations. I will 
only cite three examples : 

" A gentleman, some time ago, awoke in the middle of a dark winter's night, 
and perceived that his room was as light as if it were day. He awoke his wife 
and mentioned the circumstance, saying he could not help apprehending that 
some misfortune had occurred to kis fishing-boats, which had put to sea. The 
boats were lost that night." 

Here the sense was palpably addressed while the soul was mysterious- 
ly informed. The actual occurrence of a disaster corresponding to the 
interior impression seems to determine the connection of the phenome- 
non and the event, in a manner that can hardly be accounted for with- 
out admitting the agency of spirits. 

" I remember a case of the servants in a country-house, in Aberdeenshire, 
hearing the door-bell ring after their mistress was gone to bed; on coming up to 
open it, they saw through a window that looked into a hall that it was quite 

*Partridge & Brittan's edition of the Sewess; of Prcvjr-t, p, 104. 



212 A DISCUSSION. 

light, and that their master, Mr. F , who was at the time ubsent from home, 

■was there in his traTeling dress. They ran to tell their mistress what they had 
seen ; bat when they returned, all was dark, and there was nothing unusual to 

be discoTered. That night Mr. F- died at sea, on his Toyage to London " — 

(See J\'ight Side of JVature, page 320.) 

I can not imagine that any one will be absurd enough to conjecture 
that, this may have been a phosphorescent or odic illumination proceed- 
ing from the lifeless body, which was far away at sea. Such a light 
could only appear^ over or near the remains. It is no less absurd to 
ascribe the whole to the power of imagination ; for, in the first place — 
and when nothing of the kind was anticipated — the servants all saw, 
both the light and the man ; but, on their return, after relating the cir- 
cumstance, though their imaginations were powerfully excited, not one 
of them could perceive anything whatever. Thus this hypothesis is clearly 
disproved by the fact. The Spiritual theory alone afibrds a rational 
solution of this and a thousand similar mysteries. The thoughts of F — , 
in the last hours of mortal life, were doubtless centered on the distant 
objects of his affection, and the disenthralled spirit, following the law of 
its affinities, immediately presented itself at home, appearing only to 
the domestics in the house, that he might thus indirectly, and in the 
most delicate manner, intimate to Mrs. F — , what had happened, that 
she might be prepared for the intelligence which would soon reach her 
through other channels. 

The authoress of The Night Side of Nature, gives an account of the 

mysterious illurjaination witnessed at G castle, in 1803, by Rev. 

Henry A , of Redburg, and rector of Greystoke. The Reverend 

gentleman and his lady were guests at the castle when, on the night after 

their arrival, Mr. A saw the phenomena here described in his own 

words : 

" It might have been between one and two o'clock in the morning when I awoke. 
I observed that the fire was totally extinguished ; but although that was the case, 
and we had no light, I saw a glimmer in the center of the room, which suddenly 
increased to a bright flame. I looked out apprehending that something had 
caught fire, when to my amazement, I beheld a beautiful boy, clothed in white, 
with bright locks, resembling gold, standing by my bedside, in which position he 
remained some minutes, fising his eyes upon me with a mild and benevolent 
expression. He then glided gently away toward the side of the chimney, where 
it is obvious there is no possible egress, and entirely disappeared. I found myself 
again in total darkness, and all remained quiet until the usual hour of rising. I 

declare this to be a true account of what I saw at C castle, upon my word as 

a clergyman." 

Mrs. Crowe adds : Mr. A only speaks of the circumstance with 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND 213 

the utmost seriousness, and never hesitates to express his conviction that 
it was a spiritual visitation. 

Mrs. S. S. Smith, a much esteemed correspondent to whom I am 
indebted for several beautiful poems, contributed to the Shekinah, 
some time since buried all that was perishable of a beloved sister, to 
whom she was tenderly attached. Some time before the event trans- 
pired, the sister made a promise that, should it be her lot to first enter 
the Spirit-land, she would, if possible, return to Mrs. S. in " a natural 
and life-like manner." Long after the separation occurred, Mrs. Smith 
continued to look for her sister, but she came not. And when month 
after month passed away, without bringing the slightest indication of the 
spiritual presence, she at length " concluded that the spirit was not per- 
mitted to ratify the promise." In this state of mind she retired one 
night, when, most unexpectedly, the promise was redeemed. I here 
extract, from a communication addressed to me by Mrs. Smith, her 
statement of what occurred : 

" The night was of that pitchy darkness peculiar to a slow and driz- 
zling rain, which silently fell to the ground, making scarcely a single 
sound. In the act of turning my face to the wall — all at once— I became 
conscious of a bright and clear light penetrating through and heneath vaj 
closed eyelids — still brighter grew the light, illuminatiijg the whole 
room — and, at the same instant, from the opposite window, I heard 
gently gliding footsteps, advancing nearer, and still nearer — with a rust- 
ling motion, as of a person's dress — until the sounds ceased in front of 
my bed ! In an instant I became conscious of a spiritual presence, and 
recalled the promise made to me one year before." 

About the beginning of May last, Mrs. Harriet Porter, being entranced 
at her residence in Bridgeport, received a communication, from what 
purported to be a spirit, to the effect that if she would form a circle in 
an adjoining room, with the other persons who were present at the time^ 
they (the spirits) would make an effort to write without human hands. 
Accordingly, the parties designated formed a circle round a chair, on 
which a blank sheet of paper and a pencil had been previously placed. 
After a few moments luminous currents were seen issuing from an invis- 
ible source at the four corners of the room. These currents converged 
to a focal concentration over the chair, when the light suddenly 
expanded from this point to the size of about two feet in diameter, and 
became exceedingly brilliant and dazzling. In the midst of this light 
there appeared the radiant form of a venerable man with long white 
hair and beard. With a benign expression he took the pencil in his 



214 A DISCUSSION. 

hand and rapidly traced a line across the paper. The light vanished, 
and the pencil at the same instant was heard to fall in the corner of the 
room. All the parties assert that they distinctly heard the pencil as it 
moved over the paper, and that not a single hand of any jterson in the 
circle was at liberty diiring the process. On examining the paper, the 
following words were found plainly written : " Mrs. Minor, Litchfield." 
No one present knew aught of any person answering to the name, and 
after some conversation the matter was dismissed as inexplicable. The 
next day, however, a stranger — a gentleman wholly unknown to all the 
parties — came to the house to see Mrs. Porter. The stranger said hi? 
name was Minor. This prompted, an allusion to the interview had with 
the spirit on the preceding day, and some one handed the paper to the 
stranger who at once declared that, Mrs. Minor., of Litchfield^ could be 
no other person than his deceased wife. 

It will be recollected that Mr. Fowler, in his statement respecting the 
occurrences in his room, speaks of luminous cun-ents, of divers colors, 
which emanated from what appeared to he a box of electrical apparatus. 
In the course of his description he says : " One of the company placed 
a piece of paper, pen and ink, on the lid of this box. The luminous 
currents now centered around the pen which was immediately taken up 
and dipped in the ink, and without the application of any other force or 
instrument, so far as I could perceive, the pen was made to move across 
the paper, and a communication was made which I have since learned 
was in the Hebrew language." 

Mrs. Whitman, in one of her letters to the Tribune, says : " I have 
seen electric lights of great brillianc}'', which filled the upper part of the 
room and remained visible for several minutes, and which were observed 
at the same -moment by three or four persons." 

Sometimes there appears a gradual illumination, sufficient to disclose 
very minute objects, and at others, a tremulous phosphorescent light 
gleams over the walls, and odic emanations proceed from human bodies, 
or shoot meteor-like through the apartment. These phenomena are of 
frequent occurrence, and are not accounted for by any material hypothe- 
sis, unless, indeed, they are comprehended under the popular generali- 
zation which ascribes the whole to human fraud and delusion. I have 
seen these lights in all their variety. On one occasion when a number 
of friends were assembled at my own house, there occurred a gradual 
illumination of the apartment. It appeared lilie the twilight half an 
hour after the dawn. The light continued to increase for about fifteen 
minutes, and then gradually diminished. 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 215 

Id the month of December 1851, while passing an evening with some 
friends in Springfield, Mass., Mr. Grordon being the medium, odic lights 
of great brilliancy were seen moving in various directions — occurring at 
intervals — while a peculiar phosphorescence moved in undulating and 
broken waves over head. 

Also on the 30th of March I chanced to be one of a company con- 
vened at the house of Mr. Elmer, in the same place — Mr. Hume, the 
medium, being present — when the room was darkened to see if the mys- 
terious illumination would occur. Immediately the gross darkness began 
to be dissipated, and in a few moments, the forms of all the persons 
in the room were distinctly visible.. Without disclosing her purpose to 
any one, Mrs. Elmer mentally requested that the spirits would restore 
the darkness, and, almost instantly, the change was perceived by the 
whole company, and soon every form was lost in the deepening gloom. 

Again, being at the residence of Mr. Partridge, in New- York, where 
several others were assembled, I was quite unexpectedly overwhelmed 
with drowsiness. I leaned forward and rested my head on the table, and 
was soon in a profound sleep. From this state of insensibility I was sud- 
denly aroused by a powerful shock. Two most brilliant lights — like 
balls of fire, about two inches in diameter — were, at that instant, project- 
ed from the second pair of nerves of special sensation, when a simulta- 
neous and very powerful movement of the table occurred, in the direc- 
tion which the lights proceeded. 

In the second and third letters of my present series I gave a brief 
analysis of the probable modes whereby spirits produce the phenomena 
ascribed to them. It is true the question did not demand this, but 
thinking that it might contribute to render my present labors more in- 
teresting to the general reader, and serviceable to the cause, my judg- 
ment dictated that course. In the present instance, however, I can 
hardly assume to speak with any degree of certainty. I will only in- 
dulge in a single conjecture. The watery vapors in the atmosphere 
onay be electrically decomposed by the agency of spirits, and the same 
process might naturally enough ignite such of its elements as are in- 
flammable. It is well known that hydrogen is capable of producing a 
variety of luminous phenomena, while in a state of combustion, the phe- 
nomenal variations depending on its several combinations. Sulphuretted 
hydrogen, in contact with air, burns very slowly, exhibiting a pale blue 
flame. Combine hydrogen with three times its volume of air, and it burns 
with intensity, and when united with one-half its volume of pure oxygen, 
it becomes explosive. Electricity is not visible in the dazzing and sub- 



216 A DISCUSSION. 

lime exhibitions of its phenomena. In thunder-storms we see the light 
occasioned by the combustion of hydrogen, which is disengaged and 
ignited by the electrical current, in its passage through the dark watery 
clouds. 

Now it must be obvious that even a very limited control over the agents 
which the invisible powers profess to use, would enable them to cause 
an electro-chemical process among the aqueous vapors, at once produc- 
ing decomposition and combustion. When the luminous phenomena 
have an objective existence, they may possibly be produced in this 
manner. I know not that they are, nor do I speak from an unwavering 
conviction. But the idea that spirits have power to influence the ele- 
ments of our sphere, is neither incompatible with reason nor opposed to 
the ancient revelations. In the II. Book of Samuel it is stated that, 
the Philistines being drawn up in battle array against Israel at Mispeh, 
were smitten and dispersed, by a thunder-storm, which is said to have 
been produced by immediate spiritual direction. It is, moreover, re- 
corded of ' Jesus that he rebuked the winds, and there was a great 
calm ;' and Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, speaks of the " Prince 
of the powers of the air." Indeed, that spirits have power to act on 
and influence the elements, is an idea that seems to have been enter- 
tained not only by Heathen authors but by Jewish and Christian 
teachers. 

Of this, at least, we are sure : The facts exist, and do not belong to 
the categoi'y of ordinary physical phenomena. They are most myste- 
riously identified with the names and forms of departed human beings ; 
they exhibit, in many instances, a marvelous conformity to the intel- 
lectual, moral, and social peculiarities of those who purport to be in 
communication ; they are inwrought with the individual life and expe- 
rience of men, and in a manner, too, which only the human mind, in 
its spiritual and immortal relations, is fitted to. determine or perceive. 
The nature of the phenomena under discussion, and the circumstances 
of their occurrence, oblige us to conclude that they are produced by 
the direct action of minds like our own •, and yet, whenever we try to 
produce even a poor semblance of a single phase of these Manifestations, 
the efibrt is found to be utterly abortive. This it is that drives the 
rational mind from this sphere of physical tangibihties, to seek for the 
ultimate springs of this great Spiritual movement in the invisible Arcana 
of Grod, from which proceed the subtile energies of life, and from whose 
sublime abodes " ministering spirits " go forth in His name, and armed 
with a measure of His power. 



ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 217 

In conclusion, I deem it proper to observe that, I propose no rejoinder 
to what you may say in your replies, until I have fini&hed, as fully as the 
limits of this discussion will permit, the important business now in hand. 
Having commenced my analysis of the facts, in support of the Spiritual 
theory, I can not be diverted from my purpose by the playful sophisms 
and semi-serious contradictions of my friend. All the joints that you 
may even seem to malce^ against the Sjpiritual idea^ will receive particular 
attention hereafter. At present, and for a little season, I propose to 
allow you all the freedom you desire, but I must admonish you to use it 
as one who expects to render a strict account. Will you also bear in 
mind that your mere negation will neither invalidate the truth nor shake 
one stone in the spiritual temple, whose foundations are demonstrated, 
by numberless facts and reasons, to rest on eternal principles. 

In this conviction, deepened by the observation and experience of 
each passing day, I remain, Yours fraternally, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



HEPLY TO S. B. BEITTAN. 

NUMBER FOUR. 

My Dear Sir : You open your fourth letter by referring to " Myste- 
rious Lights," and instance five cases from the Old and New Testa- 
ments. So fiir as viodern lights are concerned, I might legitimately 
refuse to notice these examples — as it places my argument under the 
ban of religious prejudice, and you exultingly ask me to " disabuse the 
world " of these " mysteries." I know no good reason why the men 
and women of the Scriptures should not be put under the same laws 
that control other beings. The faith of the, world rests as securely on a 
deception as on the truth — when the human mind is not capable of un- 
derstanding the fallacy. I am sure that Mahomet has had less trouble 
to maintain " loniformity " of faith among his followers than Christians 
— and still the Christian world assures us that his religion is a He and 
he no prophet. The " sun stood still in Gibeon,''^ one whole day, for 
men to butcher one another by the light of it, we are told in the Scrip- 
tures. Theology once assigned the short space of a few thousand years 
as the age of our earth — Greology has demolished that foolishness. 
" Six days,''^ literally understood for centuries, was formerly assigned 
as the period occupied on Creation — but such an opinion was recently 
refuted by a clergyman in New-York city. The " millions whose faith 
has rested on such testimony for ages " have as a mass held during that 
time that our earth was flat like a pancake. Grallileo, Copernicus, New- 
ton, Herschell, and my friend Fishbough, hold that it is a round body — ■ 
so holds all the world now. So I conclude that the '''•faith of the mil- 
lions " of blockheads whose faith for ages rested on the divine right of 
'kings has very little to do with matters of fact in the domain of philoso- 
phy. So I pass to facts and figures. 

Bernier, the traveler, in 1666, witnessed an eclipse oi the. sun in Hin- 
dostan. Hear what he says : " Both sides of the river Jumna, for 
neai-ly a league, was covered with Hindoos of both sexes, up to the waist 
in water — the children were naked, the women had a muslin covering, 
the men a narrow girdle. The Rajah's nobles, merchants and nabobs, 
had a screen preparad where they could bathe unseen. The moon began 



A DISCUSSION. 210 

to obscure the sun, when the multitude plunged into the stream, mut- 
tering, and praying, and flinging their hands toward the sun, sprinkling 
water in the air, bowing their heads, with a thousand other gesticula- 
tions. At its close they threw pieces of money and many garments into 
the stream and dispersed." These " millions " believed the phenomenon 
to be spiritual. No less a being than the Hindoo's God was, in their 
opinion, the true cause. Twelve years previous to this, Bernier, a native 
of France, witnessed and described the effects of an eclipse on the mass 
of La Grande Nation. In 1654 the astrologers of France proclaimed 
the end of the world — a bugbear quite common in the middle ages, and 
not wholly unknown in the " noon of .the nineteenth century." He says 
" the terrified rabble of all ranks, oppressed by guilt or fixuaticism, crept 
like rats, into their cellars, or dark closets, as if God could not have 
beheld thern there ; or rushed headlong to their churches, with piety be- 
gotten by fear. Others who anticipa»ted some malignant influence, 
swallowed drugs, which were vaunted by their inventors as a sovereign 
remedy against the elipse disease. 

The Hindoos acted the most rationally — only flinging away their 
money ; the Erahmins of course did not pick it up — but the Doctors in 
Franco got pay for their drugs. This was in France, about 200 years 
ago — " Vive la Roi.''"' We had better rest our faith on the belief of 
the " millions " — they are alioays right. "■ The voice of the people is 
the voice of God." That is " luminous and highly spiritual." Other 
men beside those you mention have seen luminosities, let us have a few 
cases. 

John Batuta, a traveler of repute, who flourished about 1324, and 
traveled over the entire East, relates the following. He found in the 
Maldine Islands a set of praying Mahometans, and they related the story 
of a specter seen by them, and the cause of it. The legend ascribes 
the conversion of these Islanders to Mahometan faith, to a mail who 
destroyed a sea-monster toho monthly devoured one of their most beautiful 
virgins, and to keep up their fervency the monster appears on a certain 
day in the ofiing, " where Batuta saio the specter with his oion eyes, in the 
form of a ship filled with candles and torches. This specter is often seen 
in those seas sailing in the teeth of the wind — and called \>y European 
sailors, the " Flying Dutchman." 

Cotton Mather who had a terrible fright with the spirits of his days 

relates in Magnalia the following story of a specter ship. In 1647, 

some citizens of New-Haven built a ship in Rhode Island, and freighted 

it for England. The ship was lost and all on board, and much anxiety 

d See Appendix, Note D. 



220 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

was felt among the Colonists about her fate, and they fell to " praying 
that God would tell them, if it pleased him," what had become of the 
ship. In June next ensuing a great thunder-storm arose out of the 
North-west, and about an hour before sun-set, a ship of like dimensions 
was seen coming up the harbor, her sails all set, and filled with a fresh 
wind — and was seen for the space of half-an-hour — sailing to the North. 
The ship crowded to the shore, and was seen of a multitude, and the 
children cried " there is a brave ship." The spectators could see the 
" several cclors of each part, and the principal rigging," and it came so 
near that they thought a stone could be " thrown on board," when her 
maintop fell hanging in her shrouds, then her mizzen top fell, and her 
masting seemed blown off — then her " hulk caresned " — and " overset 
and vanished into a smoky dmod.''^ 

These are palpable cases of mental reflection — the object seen corres- 
ponds to the image in the mind. , The latter seemed to have a " cloiod " 
for a foundation to which the mind transferred its own image. It was 
seen just after a thunder-storm when the air was in a favorable condition 
to reflect. The air of some localities evidently favors the seeing of 
these mental shadows. 

Kempfer, when near Baku, on the Caspian sea, saw fields on fire, 
where the surface in places seemed " boiling, eddying and murmuring 
like the waters of hell." " From the rents in the earth, black smoke, 
blue steam, and pure flame rushed up into the air." A few persons 
were engaged collecting lime-stone over the crevices, and burning them, 
while others were cooking dinner over the burning naptha. One of the 
laborers, for a small fee, took a thread of cotton from his shirt, tied it to 
his rake, and held it over another rent from which no steam apparently 
issued, when a tall bright flame shot up, like a gas lamp, burned furi- 
ously, and expired. Beside a hill of stone sat two Parsees, of Persia, 
beholding with awe and veneration the ascending flames, which they 
regarded as the emblem of the Eternal God.' They were '■^fire worship- 
ers,''^ and behold thsit flame with as much awe as Spiritualists do the 
" odic lights " We naturally venerate the unknown. 

Dr. Thomas Shaw, who visited Jerusalem in 1722, when returning 
from the Jordan v/as journeying by night through the valleys of Mount 
Ephraira, was attended by a singular ignis fatuios. " Sometimes," sayc 
the traveler, " it was globular , or else pointed., like the flame of a candle; 
it would then spread itself and involve the whole ccoipany in a pah in- 
offensive light., then contract, instantly, and d'sappear. In less than a 
minute it would return and begin to exert itself and run along from one 



A DISCUSSION. 221 

place to another, like a train of gunpowder set on fire, or spread and 
expand itself over two or three acres of the adjacent mountains, light- 
ing up every shrub and tree. The atmosphere was thick and hazy, and 
the dew on their bridles was unctuous.'''' Shaw suggests that this curi- 
ous light is similar to those seen skipping on the masts of ships, and 
called " Coiyo Sauio,^'' by sailors, as they were called Castor and Pollux 
by the ancients. The reader will notice that the air was in a peculiar 
state. That it was ati influence and a light of a curious character, and 
at times an apparent light — which showed physical objects — no one will 
dispute. It is more marvelous than the " burning bush" or the " light 
cloud " or the " pillar of fire." 

Carsten Niebuhr, while in the Persian (xulf, saw the sea, in the night, 
for half a mile in extent covered with a luminous appearance — which is 
now known to be produced by the medusa. If the cause was unknown, 
we might charge it on old Neptune with great effect. Humboldt has 
often observed the same phosphorescent appearance of the sea. Ber- 
nier, while on the Ganges, had hitched his boat to a tree and was watch- 
ing tigers. The moon rose and spanned the earth with a pale bow that 
resembled the phantom of the sun bow. The next night the bow re- 
turned — and on the fourth night " the woods became suddenly illumin- 
ated by a shower of fire — the leaves of the forests on both sides of the 
stream glowed as if they had been clothed with leaves of living flame." 
These fires moved in columns, fell in drops, or rose in clouds — the night 
was hot and the air still — and the Portuguese sailors declared that they 
saw so many demons. Fire- flies and marshy vapors were the cause of 
the scene. And, says Bernier, " the marsh meantime sent up meteors 
like gloles of fire or enormous rockets — while others assumed the shape 
of a tree of fire.'''' A pillar of fire by night. 

Historians mention another luminous appearance — on a large scale — 
which has made some disturbance in the religious world — and it should 
find a place in this discussion. Constantino espoused Christianity as a 
matter of policy. His character was cold and jealous— and he destroyed 
all the family of his brother but Julian — this lad was spared his life, but 
suffered at the hands of a gloomy tyrant. Julian, educated in the prin- 
ciples of Plato, had imbibed a deep-rooted hatred and contempt for the 
murderer of his family, and the religion he had espoused. When he 
succeeded to the empire he proclaimed toleration to all sects, but espoused 
Paganism, and attempted to revive its desolate worship. He was a man 
of strong mind and studious habits, and in his vanity conceived the de- 
sign of rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem — to vie with the stately 



222 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

Christian edifice that stood on the adjacent hillof Calvar}'. " He held," 
says Gibbon, " the local God of the Jews in deep veneration, and vied 
with Solomon in the number and splendor of his bloody sacrifices. 
Alypius, his poet, friend, and minister, was commissioned to begin the 
work." About 300 years had elapsed since its destruction. Numerous 
historians attest the miracles or supernatural appearances. The Chris- 
tian world has everywhere related this story as an evidence of jDi?;z7?e 
interposUlon. 

Ammianus Marcellinus, a Pagan, and one of the soldiers of Julian, 
says, " While Alypius, assisted by the Governor of the Province, urged 
with vigor and diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire 
breaking out near the foundations, with frequent and reiterated attacks, 
rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched and 
blasted workmen, and the victorious element continuing in this manner 
resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking 
was abandoned." The profound historian Gibbon is confounded with 
this story, but gives the facts and authorities, hinting that some fact in 
Nature will yet explain it. It is well known that Millman and Guizot, 
two of the most learned theologians in Europe, have followed Gibbon's 
great work — " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire " — with explana- 
tory notes, to break the force of his arguments against the Devine origin 
of Christianity. 

I give the explanation of this phenomenon, furmshed by these critics. 
Guizot, quoting Tacitus, says, " The temple itself was a kind of citadel, 
which had its own walls, superior in their workmanship to those of the 
city. The porticos themselves which surrounded the temple, were an 
excellent fortification. There was a fountain of constantly running 
water, sibbterranean excavations under the mountain, reservoirs and cis- 
terns to collect the rain water." — (Tac. Hist. vol. ii, 12.) Guizot con- 
tinues, " These reservoirs must have been considerable. They. fur- 
nished water for 1,100,000 people dm-ing the siege of Jerusalem — the 
siege occurring from April till August, when no rain falls in the city." 
These excavations, he says, served, even before the return of the Jews 
from Babylon, for magazines of wine, oil and corn, and also the treas- 
ures which were laid up in the temple. Josephus affirms their great 
extent. When the city was on the point of surrender, the chiefs de- 
signed, but were prevented from taking refuge in these caverns. Some 
secreted themselves — and after the burning of the temple, one Simon 
issued from the vault and appeared amid the Roman guard. Many 
more were discovered. The caverns date to the time of Solomon. The 



A DISCUSSION. 



223 



space of 300 hundred years had filled them with infiammalh oir^ and 
the workmen of Julian, on " approaching these passages with torches^'''' 
when they reached them by digging, found them " suddenly on fire,'''' 
explosions were heard, and r\ew Jlanes appeared whenever they repeated 
the experiment. Guizot here refers to the facts of a similar kind of 
phenomena occurring in mines — which has led since to Davi's discovery 
of the safely-lamp. This explanation is confi)'med by a similar fact. 
Josephus says Herod had heard that treasures were concealed in the 
sepulcher of David — he descended with attendants, and on Utcmpting 
to enter the second chamber, he was repelled by the flames, which killed 
those who were with him. Thus we find that one of the most aivful in- 
terpositions of Providence in favor of a sect, vanishes into results pro- 
duced by natural causes, and testified to by Christians themselves. — 
Gib. vol. ii, 340." 

" An earthquake, whirlwind, and fiery eruption which overturned and 
scattered the workmen, are mentioned by respectable writers." To this 
remark of Gobbon I find this note appended, from Warburton's answer 
to Basnage : " The Bishop has ingeniously explained the miraculous 
crosses which appeared on the garments of the spectators, by a similar 
instance, and the natural efiects of lightning." By this note it appears 
that luminous crosses were seen by the multitude at these occasions. 
These latter I regard as mental reflection — the cross m all minds, would 
evidently be the prominent mental object. 

While on this point, I must observe that this explains the cross seen 
by the Emperor Constantine — when marching at the head of his army. 
Deeply intent on the policy of changing the religion of the Empire, 
Christ and the cross were in his mind — suddenly a luminous cross is seen 
— and inscribed " by this conquer." Before Jerusalem was destroyed 
for a space of a year — a fl,a.ming sword was seen by the inhabitants of 
the city. The Koman sword was always present to their minds. Na- 
zarius describes an army of divine warriors that he saw fall from the 
sky — marks their stature — their beauty — and the stream of light which 
beamed from their celestial armor. The orator appeals to the whole 
Gallic nation for the truth of his assertion. The night after Constan- 
tine and his army had seen the luminous cross, Christ appeared to him, 
snd displayed the sign of the cross — and directed him to march against 
his enemies. This vision corresponds to his mood of mind. Eusebius 
declares that the Emperor affirmed with an oath the truth of this vision. 

Strange that Christ should never have appeared to other hutchers who 
have waded in seas of blood. The vision of Constantine was seen just 
« See Appendix, Note E. 



224 BEITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

before he Lad determined to do his butchering in the iicame of Christ. 
Similar facts are on record. The autumn before the American Revo- 
lution, the people of Killingly, Conn., who had been expecting hostili- 
ties, were one day alarmed by repeated discharges of small-arms, in the 
direction of Boston. The sounds were heard all night, and the people 
wei'e greatly surprised when they found no battle had occurred. 

Beside these spirit -sounds I find the following: "Just before the 
battle of Yorktown, Nell Alexander was returning home from Provi- 
dence, R. I. When near Alexander's lake, about ten o'clock, he 
looked up, and saw a Irilliant light. South of the zenith, extending 
east and west in the sky, lay an arch of mounted cannon^ their muzzles 
pointing south. Their color was that of the aurora borealis, and were 
sixty-four in number. His uncle Levens also saw and counted these 
cannon. They were both Scotchmen — and entitled to second sight. 
An aurora converted into a park of cannon, by mental reflection, trans- 
forming the object seen. 

Julian, the Emperor, just before his death, saw the figure of the god 
Mars passing from his tent-door, his face vailed ; he rose, went to the 
door to cool his brow in the midnight air, and saw a meteor shoot across 
the sky. He knew his time had come. He was wounded next day with 
a Persian javelin, and yielded his life with the " readiness of a cheerful 
debtor." 

Pagans as often have these luminous visitants as Christians. Their 
facts are as well attested as ours. Reichenbach tells us of a luminous 
doud seen over a new-made grave — a sensitive person saw it as a ghost — 
another whom he took to the spot saw a bright flame only — he removed 
the dead body and quick-lime and the ghost disappeared. Hahn and 
Kern, in the Silesian castle where the ghost dog was seen, saw flashes of 
light darting from the corners of the rooms, in various directions. The 
Bordeaux witches, when about to be. burned, saw '• illusory fires," 
through which the Devil made them pass without harm. This was a 
mental phenomenon. 

" Peter of Alcantara was often seen enveloped in a lustrous light ^ and 
floated into the air." Odic emanations from his own body. When 
Xerxes marched into G-reece, the God of Delphi told the inhabitants to 
leave the treasures in the temple, the God could defend them. When 
the Persians approached, the sacred arms were moved hy invisible hands 
on to the neighboring declivity — a miraculous s^ormo/Zio-A^wm^ gleamed 
among the hills — and warlike voices of acclamation resounded within 
the temple. 



A DISCUSSION. 225 

Romulus, the founder of Rome, disappeared in the midst of a cloud 
and flash of lightning — in the sight of the whole army. At Cape Eliz- 
abeth, Maine, August 12, 1771, in a perfectly char day, a blaze of fire 
entered a room where a young woman was weaving — burned her arm, 
set the harness and web on fire. She gave the alarm and the fire was 
extinguished. Electricity probably. Servius Tullus, the sixth Kingoi 
Rome, was made prisoner of war in his youth, and while a slave in the 
King's palace, he lay asleep in the sight of many, and his head urns seen 
to be on fire. The attendants ran for water, but the Queen forbade 
them, declaring it was a token from the Grods. He awoke after a long 
sleep, and the flame disappeared. So says Livy. Does od-force pass 
from the brain while asleep ? Nero murdered his mother, Agrippina — 
her ghost followed him, and the furies also with flaming torches and 
whips. Savanarola, a profound mystic and preacher, who caused Lo- 
renzo De Medici to renounce his absolute authority, before death, was 
attended with miracles. Francis Picus, his biographer, affirms that 
more than once he saw the Holy Ghost sitting on Savanarola's shoulder, 
in the ioxm. of 2i dove fluttering his feathers., which were sprinkled with 
silver and gold. How beautiful ! The occurrence appeared actual. 
Savanarola was condemned and bursaed. He faced the fagot and fire 
like a true martyr. 

I regard the above as a spectral illusion., a mental reflection. Mirage, 
or specter lakes of water, is another form of these mental reflections, as 
any one who will examine may see.^ They always occur when the sense 
of thirst is overpowering, and the eye sees the image of the mind re- 
flected in the air. The air no doubt, in all these cases, is in a peculiar 
state. Senator Wade related to me the following fact : About ten 
years since a sleet storm had covered everything with ice. About ten 
o'clock one moon-light night he went to the door — a cloud lay east of 
the moon and another west, while it shined out clear and full between, 
them. High in the zenith hung a most gorgeous temple, its tall spires 
tipped in golden light. His first thought was that " the New Jerusalem 
was coming down out of Heaven ;" but on close inspection he saw that 
it was the ghost image of our old brick church penciled on the shining 
vault by the refraction of the moon's rays on the sleet-covered building. 
I have long thought the aurora borealis to be the refraction of light on. 
floating fields of ice — the moving masses create her dancing streams. 

When experimenting in Covington, Ky., on biology, with Drs. Ever- 

eet and Westervelt, we bad a dozen subjects or more, all young men. 

The operator one evening tried afire image on the subjects, and repeat— 

f See Appendix, Note F. 

15 



226 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

ed the words, "A Grod in grandeur and a world on fire." At the word 
fire most of the subjects fell flat on the stand, others skulked back in 
great horror — all showing the most intense sign of awe and fear. 
When restored, they all affirmed that a sublime shower of glowing fire 
was around them, and the whole room seemed in a glow of intense 
flame. The image, fire, in the mind was here reflected and seen ex- 
teriorly. 

There are three facts to be noted in these occurrences in the exam- 
ples given by both you and myself: 1. Some are explained by laws 
well understood. 2. Others are compounded of physical objects and 
mental influences. 3. Others appear to be purely mental reflections oc- 
casioned by a peculiar magnetic state of body which brings the mind 
into connection with the surrounding electric ether. 

The " burning bush " was not consumed — the ''vapor " was not then 
" decomposed " by the angel. Our God is a " consuming Jire.^'' This 
image in the mind of Moses, at a favorable moment, was transferred to 
the bush — as in the specter ship in New-Haven. The "pillar of fire," 
(a cloud to the Jewish mind was always the covering to Grod,) may be 
explained in a similar way, or as a purely mental specter in their ex- 
cited impressible state. 

The friends of Jesus, constantly excited by his wonders, and their 
own simplicity, in' their magnetic moods would see thepersons who hap- 
pened to occur to their minds. The " cloven tongues " o^fire was the 
notion the Jews had of the Holy Ghost. Did the Holy Ghost " decom- 
pose the watery vapor " at these numerous points — or was he divided 
into so many lights 1 They " spake with other tongues," and what is 
more remarkable, some ten or more difi"erent nations heard the Gallil- 
•eans in the " tongues in which they were born." I get the idea that 
they spoke in the Hebrew, but the strangers present heard them in their 
own tongue. The witch-girl in Cotton Mather's care understood Greek, 
Hebrew, and Latin, as he pronounced them. Various facts in history 
go to show that persons in the psychological state hear and understand 
•tongues before unknown. 

The "lustrous light " of Peter of Alcantara, which enveloped him, 
was quite as great a miracle as what Paul saw. Paul was made blind, 
heard a voice, and Yeter floated in the air. The Baron proves that odic 
-flame surrounds the head and hands of magnetic persons. The " cloud- 
form " seen by Kerner was a mental reflection ; he saw it by en rapport 
with her ; he found her in the magnetic state. The head in numerous 
»<5ases ftf ,ghost-seeing is also indistinct. The three cases from Mrs. 



A DISCUSSION. 227 

Crowe are palpable cases of mmtal rejiedion. The " fishing boats " 
lost was reflected into his mind by the dying crew. The servants, in 
Aberdeenshire, saw their master in a " traveling dress." Do you think 
that ghosts from the other world wear " traveling dresses " — " oriental 
costumes " — and various other clap-traps used when alive } This one 
fact upsets all the fleeting forms of ghostdom, and shows them to be the 
indentical creatures that live in our own minds. Mr. F. died that 
night at sea — they saw him in a " traveling dress " as he was usually 
seen about home. Mr. A. saw a beautiful boy, in white robes, and 
golden locks. I only ask, do ghosts wear dresses and have red hair ? 
That boy was a mental reflection. Mrs. S. S. Smith saw the " illumin- 
ated room " when her eyes were closed ; heard her sister's feet ; heard 
her dress rustle. Could she see the interior of the room with dosed 
eyes 1 This was a mental room, and mental light, and a mental sister ! 
One of her specters, if I remember, was a little white angel fanning her 
with his wings. Are angels, then, half man, half spirit, and half goose .'' 
Angels have wings ? — -what a monstrosity ! . Such a mixture of animal 
and angelic is only found in our own minds. 

A Millerite solemnly afiirmed to Mr. B., of A., that he saw three 
white angels fly over Michigan. The specter seen by the circle at 
Bridgeport was that of an old " man with long white hair and beard." 
Do spirits have " hair and beards ? It was a case of mental writing 
performed by the circle — these electric currents were controlled, I 
should judge, by Mr. Minor, m rajpfort with the circle — the name writ- 
ten seems to indicate that fact. He came there the next day and had 
been thinking of it the night previous. Mr. Fowler saw luminious cur- 
rents, paper, pen, and ink, and a magnetic battery, and men in the 
*' oriental costume." The question is, do they keep such things up 
there, or are these images palpably the viental projedions of his own 
mind ? 

The cases of Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Cordon, and Mr. Hume, are purely 
mental emanations. Light is a sensation produced in the mind by motion 
in the electric ether. Persons in this magnetic state are in perfect rap- 
vort with this medium — and it would appear that they may see any idea 
impressed on the mind. Your own case is explained in a similar man- 
ner — it appears that two currents passed from your eyes, and moved the 
table — your vision was mental, I think. In violent falls on the ice, in 
skating, boys speak of " seeing stars." Your own mind in passing from 
sleep to waking may have been in connection with some mind in the 
room — as you had been in a profound sleep. 



228 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND 

I must close this letter by a few queries. How is it that the shirks 
who must know how thej do these great things^ have not informed your 
circles'? but leave you to ''^conjecture.'''' I know that Heathen, Jewish, 
and Christian authors, ail speak of spirits and demons, who control the 
air, and about everything else. '■'• If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by 
whom do your sons cast them out .?" Others beside Christ, it appears, 
cast out devils. I do not believe that a God of love would let loose 
such a foul spirit to carry ninety-nine per cent, of our race to infernal 
fires — making a moral abortion of our globe and a, fool of the race, so I 
regard^imasthe creature of men's minds a mental emanation of &n wnde- 
veloped race. You may review when you get ready^^if you will pub- 
lish my letters instead of telling what you think of them. You admon- 
ish me to use my liberty as one who must "render a strict account." 
The spirit-future is just ahead of you and myself, and one who has stood 
often by the dying couch, and seen all that was dear — mother, sisters, 
-wife, and children — consigned to the grave, will need no such admo- 
nition. 

Were I a ghost, and could return to the earth, I would command 
through all your mediums that the soil should be free, like air and water, 
putting the deeds into the hands of the mother — that Francis Joseph be 
removed from the throne and Kossuth be made Grovernor — then head- 
ing Dr. Kane's expedition, I would show the world where Franklin may 
be found — I would meddle effectually with men's affairs — do something 
worthy of a ghost. But what have we } — a few tables turned over — 
some mystic lights — much mental twaddle — and one " shingle machine," 
by Swedenborg the Seer. Yours truly, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 



BEITTAH AND EICHMOIfD'S DISCUSSION. 

NUMBER FIVE. 

MYSTEEIOUS MOVEMENTS OF PONDERABLE BODIES. 

Among the modern mysteries nothing has excited greater surprise 
than the strange and startling phenomena of which I propose te treat in 
this connection. With all our pretended reliance on Spiritual realities, 
few among us were prepared to entertain the subject in a becoming 
manner. True, all had read of the ancient marvels and many had pro- 
fessed to believe. The sacred legends of the Hebrews had been sub- 
jects of familiar contemplation from early childhood, and for eighteen 
centuries theologians had labored to propagate a religion for which they 
claimed the sanction of invisible Powers. From the world's high places 
they had pointed to the Orient as the scene of oracular communication 
and miracle ; but, as the oriental mysteries faded in the distance of time, 
faith became cold, and formal, and powerless. The ability of spirits to 
manifest their presence, in any tangible manner, came to be treated as 
a false pretense, or a mere fancy engendered by disease. Such, in 
brief, was the state of the public mind when, suddenly, ponderable 
BODIES BEGAN TO MOVE in violation of known physical laws, and in obe- 
dience to the dicta of some hidden intelligence. 

The phenomena soon became frequent, powerful, and exceedingly 
diversified. A mysterious presence appeared to hold, in subjection to 
its will, the great forces of Nature. What philosophers termed inertia 
no longer opposed a successful resistance to the motion of ponderable 
objects. Gross matter seemed at once inspired with a disposition to 
overcome its former indolent habits. Apparently restless and impatient, 
it suddenly broke over all restraints and exhibited a strange conformity 
to the powers of life and thought. For thousands of years all forms of 
matter, the specific gravity of which is greater than air, had tended 
downward to the center of the earth. The law was universal and unde- 
viatinw in its operation. The few apparent exceptions recorded in the 
Scriptures were at once ascribed to the special interposition of Omnipo- 
tence, while all similar facts, of more recent occurrence, were boldly 
denied. But at length a power, superior to the forces usually operative 



230 A DISCUSSION. 

in matter, was disclosed in every direction, and those wlio denied the 
agency of spirits in its wonderful revelations, were left to infer that the 
laws of Nature had been revised to suit the times, or that they might 
be sihsjpended in the most capricious manner, and on the most trivial oc- 
casions. To the mind of the spiritual philosopher all appeared orderly 
as before. The original laws of matter, indestructible as the elements 
they govern, were seen to be in full force, while their action, with re- 
spect to particular objects, was neutralized by the direct agency and 
superior power of an unseen intelligence. In all this the Divine order 
of the Universe is observed and the grand harmony is unbroken, for, 
from the beginning, the highest natures have been endowed with the 
most God-like capabilities. 

The facts in this department are numerous, but for obvious reasons I can 
only present a few examples. In the sixth chapter of the Second Book 
of Kings it is written that, ' The sons of the prophets were employed in 
cutting timber near the Jordan, and as one was felling a beam, the ax- 
head fell into the water ; and he cried, Alas, Master ! for it was bor- 
rowed. And the man of Grod said, Where fell it } And he showed him 
the place. And he [Elisha] cut down a stick and cast it into the 
water, and the, iron did swim.'' It is not to be supposed that the rela- 
tive weight of iron and water was changed to produce this phenomenon. 
The two substances remained precisely the same, in their constituent 
elements and comparative density, and the laws of Nature were, strictly 
speaking, no more violated than they are when a spirit {?; /Ae /orm raises 
a ponderable object from the ground. That spiritual agency was em- 
ployed, to support the iron on the surface of the water, I conceive to 
be quite possible. If in your opinion the cause of this singular effect 
consisted in a rarefaction of the od-force of the ax, will you enlighten 
our theologians on this subject, and hereafter give JElixkaj instead of the 
Baron, the credit of discovering od ? 

Remarkable manifestations of spiritual power, as illustrated in the 
mysterious movements of ponderable bodies, are said to have occurred 
at the sepulcher of Jesus, and are thus described by Matthew (chapter 
xxviii) : " And, behold, there was a great earthquake ; for the angel 
of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the 
stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like light- 
ning, and his raiment white as snow." Mark, in his description of the 
spirit that rolled the rock away from the door, says that, those who entered 
the sepulcher " saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a 
long white garment. — (Chapter xvi.) 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 231 

In the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have an account 
of a remarkable demonstration of spiritual power in the development of 
a physical effect. The apostles were preaching the gospel of Spiritual- 
ism, " healing the sick," and delivering those who " were vexed with 
unclean spirits." There were, at that time, as there are now, among 
the media many who were troubled with disorderly manifestations^ and 
the Apostles were accustomed to relieve such persons from the influence 
of the ignorant spirits who controled them. But the high priest and 
Sadducees being materialists did not believe in this spiritual jugglery, 
and filled with indignation, ' they cast the apostles into the common 
prison.' " But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison-doors 
and brought them forth." 

In the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we have an account 
of the wonderful experience of PhUip. The Cesarean deacon was com- 
manded by a spirit to go to Gaza, a city of great antiquity and important 
withal, it being one of the frontier defenses against Egypt. Phihp 
went on his way, and it happened that he met a subject of Ethiopia 
whom he instructed in the prophetic writings and soon converted to the 
spiritual religion of Jesus. Finding a convenient place at or near Gaza, 
Philip baptized the new convert, and the account states that, as they 
came up out of the water, Philip was spirited away and was not seen 
again until he appeared at Azotus, situated, according to theological 
writers, alout thirty miles Jr am the place where he disappeared ! 

I observe that you undertake to explain how the eagle rises 
into the upper air : by the exercise of his will " he rarefies the od- 
force of his body.'''' Formerly^ if I mistake not, birds were enabled to 
rise because the air would not give way with the same rapidity of motion 
that it was struck by their pinions. Thus the resistance of the atmo- 
sphere to the downward movement of the wings disclosed the whole 
secret, and the power of the eagle was seen to depend on the strength 
of the pectoral muscles., instead of the ' rarefied cd-force.'' It matters not 
when the improved mode of flying was adopted, but if you admit the 
implied fact that Philip was transported bodily from Gaza to Azotus, in 
the manner indicated, I should like to know whether you apply your 
philosophy to his case. Did Philip accomplish the feat by rarefying the 
od, or, was he removed, as the account states, by a spirit } 

Kerner, in his "Revelations concerning the inner life of Man," 
relates a number of facts illustrative of this phase of the manifestations. 
Several of these are so well adapted to my purpose that I must not, 
omit to introduce them at this stage of the investigation : 



232 A DISCUSSION. 

" Andrew Mollers mentions a woman, who lived in 1620, who, being 
in a magnetic state, rose suddenly from the bed into the air, in the 
presence of many persons, and hovered several yards above it, as if she 
would have flown out of the window. The assistants called upon Grod, 
and forced her down again. Privy Counsellor Horst speaks of a man 
in the same condition, who, in the presence of many respectable wit- 
nesses, ascended into the air and hovered over the heads of the people 
present, so that they ran underneath him, in order to defend him from 
injury should he fall." 

In the account of the strange phenomena observed at the tomb of the 
Abbe Paris, in 1724, it is alleged, that not less than twenty persons, 
whose united weight could not have been less than one tun^ were per- 
mitted to stand on a plank which was resting on the body of a sick per- 
son ; and that some mysterious power was exerted in the opposite 
direction, to such a degree that the parties who were subjected to this 
severe experiment experienced no pain or injury from the pressure. 

It is said that Peter of Alcantara, a religious enthusiast who subjected 
himself to severe mortifications, was often surrounded with a strong 
light, and was raised in the air, and sustained without any visible sup- 
port. St. Theresa also, seems to have been subject to similar experi- 
ences. It is related that on one occasion, and in presence of a great 
number of witnesses, she was raised by some invisible power and was 
carried bodily " over ike grate of ike door.^^* 

Those who deem it wiser to doubt than to believe, have been accus- 
tomed to reject these and all similar facts as monkish fables, and evea 
now they are regarded by many as the dreams of enthusiasts. How- 
ever, they do not appear, in the light of the present, as at all improb- 
able. Indeed, separation from the world and the severe discipline 
of a monastic life, was by no means unlikely to render the indi- 
vidual eminently susceptible to spiritual influence. The lives of the 
saints and martyrs furnish many similar phenomena, and that they were 
often media, for various forms of spiritual manifestation, is demonstrated 
by the undeniable facts of their experience. 

Kerner, in narrating the strange phenomena of which the Seeress of 
Prevorst (while under spiritual influence) was the medium, says, " When 
she was placed in a bath .... her limbs, breast, and the lower part 
of her person .... involuntarily emerged from the water. Her 
attendants used every efibrt to submerge her body, but she could not 

* See life of St. Theresa. 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 233 

be kept down ; and had she at these times been thrown into a river, she 
would no more have sunk than a cork." 

Now if you resort to your old assumption that, this tendency of the 
body to rise above the water was caused by the rarefaction of the od- 
force, I desire you to answer the following interrogatories : 

1 . Is it not true that the agent referred to is so rarefied at all times as to 
be inconceivably lighter than water or air ? 2. Can any one, by an act 
of volition, render this agent more ethereal than it is by nature, any 
more than he can vaporize his blood by an eifort of the will ? 3. Would 
it not rather be necessary to rarefy the osseous and fibrous system, in 
order to diminish the specific gravity of the whole ? 4. Is there any 
evidence that such a sublimation, of the grosser elements of the body, 
ever occurs ? 6. Will you elucidate the modus operandi whereby a 
man in the flesh may make himself so light that he can go up at pleas- 
ure, and have the kindness to state whether the translation of Enoch 
occurred agreeably to your peculiar mode ? 6. Were Christ and Peter 
sustained on the surface of the water in accordance with your theory ? 
And did the doubts in Peter's mind have the effect to condense the od 
in his body ? As you are inclined to fear that I may " dodge " the issue, 
you will, I trust, be careful that your example shall not contribute to 
realize your apprehension. 

We are now almost daily called to witness facts which seem to war- 
rant the presumption that gravitation and inertia are but inferior and 
involuntary natural forces, which in their action on particular objects, 
may be greatly transcended by the voluntary and higher agency of 
mind, so frequently and powerfully do ponderable objects move when 
no physical instrumentalities are employed, and the human senses can 
detect no cause of motion. 

The following statement, which was furnished for publication in the 
last volume of the Shekinah, may be appropriately introduced in this 
connection : 

"This may certify that, on the 28th day of February, 1852, while 
the undersigned were assembled at the residence of Mr. llufus Elmer, 
Springfield, Mass., for the purpose of making critical experiments in the 
so-called spiritual manifestations, the following, among other remarka- 
ble demonstrations of power, occurred in a room thoroughly illuminated. 
The table, around which we were seated, was moved by an invisible and 
unknown agency, with such irresistable force that no one in the circle 
could hold it. Two men — standing on opposite sides and grasping it at 
the same time, and in such a manner as to have the greatest possible 



234 A DISCUSSION. 

advantage — could not, by the utmost exercise of their powers, restrain 
its motion. In spite of their exertions the table was moved from one to 
three feet. Mr. Elmer inquired if the Spirits could disengage or relax 
the hold of Mr. Henry Foulds ; when suddenly — and in a manner 
wholly unaccountable to us — Mr. Foulds was seated on the floor at a 
distance of several feet from the table, having been moved so gently, 
and yet so instantaneously, as scarcely to be conscious of the fact. It 
was proposed to further test this invisible power, and accordingly five 
men, whose united weight was eight hundred and fifty-five pounds stood 
on a table (without castors) and the said table, while the men were so 
situated, was repeatedly moved a distance of from four to eight inches. 
The undersigned further say that they were not conscious of exerting 
any power of will at the time, or during any part of the exhibition ; on 
the contrary they are quite sure that the exercise of the will is always 
an impediment to such manifestations. 

At the close of these experiments it was perceived, on lifting one end 
of the table, that its weight would increase or diminish, in accordance 
with our request. Apprehending that the supposed difference might be 
justly attributable to fancy, or to some unconscious variation in the 
manner of applying the motive power, it was proposed to settle the 
question by weighing the end of the table. This was fairly tested to 
the entire satisfaction of all present. The Spirits were then requested 
to apply the invisible power. The balance was now applied in precisely 
the same manner as before, when the weight was found to have been 
suddenly increased from six to twelve pounds, varying as the mysterious 
force was increased or diminished, so that it now required a force of 
from twenty-five to thirty-one pounds to seperate the legs of the table 
from the fioor. Daniel D. Hume was the medium on this occasion, and 
it is worthy of remark that during the performance of the last experi- 
ment, he was out of the room and in the second story of the house, while 
the experiment was conducted in the back parlor below. 

" The undersigned are ready and willing, if i-equired, to make oath to 
the entire correctness of the foregoing statement." 

The original paper was signed by John D. Lord, Rufus Elmer, and 
nine others, citizens of Springfield, Mass. 

The writer was personally present and witnessed the phenomena de- 
scribed in the preceding statement. The peculiar mode, adapted to test 
the presence of a foreign intelligent influence, varies the form of expe- 
riment and renders it more than ordinarily interesting. Nothing within 
the whole range of scientific research and discovery was ever more clear- 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND 23o 

ly demoustrated tlian the fact that, the weight of the table was iiicrtased 
and dimini!^hed, in rapid alternation, by some intelligence wholly forti^u 
to the company. Though the medium, through whom the results were 
supposed to be obtained, was not in the apartment at the time, the invis- 
ible power responded instantly, and in the peculiar manner desiciibed in 
the concluding part of the statement, to as many persons as thought 
proper to repeat the experiment, and the response, came as promptly 
when the requests were mentally entertained as when they were orally 
expressed. 

There is but one earthly hypothesis to which you can possibly resort 
in a case of this nature, and that is one with which you are already 
familiar. If, as usual, you assume that the experimenter, or some other 
person, controled the result, by virtue of the alleged capacity of mortals 
to govern some imponderable element wherewith the table may be per- 
vaded, I must emphatically deny the assumption, and call on you to put 
your philosophy to the test of a practical experiment. It must be obvi- 
ous that, if the results were obtained by the action of minds in the body 
on electricity, od-force, or any other potential agent, the same or similar 
results may be pro<luced, with occasional exceptions, at pleasure. If 
the necessary parties and conditions are all wilhin. this si^hcre^ arrange, 
thtm and give us the experwient. 1 am disposed to be liberal in this 
matter. / will allow you three months'' time, and the concentrated will of 
oiie thousand jper sons, to accomplish the ex/peiiment If you succeed, and 
the mysterious power does not thereupon claim to be Spiritual, I will 
yield the point and vindicate your system, if I can comprehend its end- 
less involutions. 

As I can not finish, within the allotted limits, what I have to say of 
the mysterious movements of ponderable bodies, I will here suspend my 
observations. Yours truly, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



NUMBER FIVE. 

PHYSICAL MOVEMENTS, CALLED MYSTERIOUS. 

Dear Sir : You refer to the surprise with whicli the world has 
received the new wonders, and in that remark you only hint at what 
has always been prevalent in the human character — a love of the mar- 
velous, the wonderful, the unseen, the invisible. 

When experiments first commenced in England upon electricity, indi- 
viduals who held the wires for a shock were often thrown down, thrown 
into convulsions and spasms, and loudly delared that " the Devil was in 
them." When Faust began to multiply his books by type, the DevU 
was again seen by the multitude, and the poor printer had to take the 
penalty. In the eighth century Virgillius was imprisoned for heresy, 
because he was a mathematician and believed in the antipodes. Pious 
Pope Zachary thought the Devil was in him. 

Ceccus Asculanus was burned, at Florence, in the fourteenth century, 
by the inquisition, for making some experiments in mechanics that ap- 
peared miraculous to the vulgar. The Devil was in him — was the " easi- 
est " way of accounting for it. The " easiest wa-y of accounting for a 
fact has sent many a man to the stake, and left science under the heel 
of superstition and the devilites. 

The Rev. Mr. Burroughs was condemned as a witch, in New-Eng- 
land, because he was stouter than his neighbors ; he showed some feats 
of uncommon strength, and his neighbors, Rev. Cotton Mather, the hon- 
orable Court, thought the '' Devil was in him " — that was the " easiest 
way " of solving the problem, and it saved the trouble of thinking — glo- 
rified Grod — and put the Devil to shame. That was in the land oi leather 
pumpkin seeds — a little over one hundred years since. 

The present phenomena, by no means new, share the same fate of 
other new occurrences — " the Devil," says one party ; " spirits," says 
the other. Franklin, Swedenborg, Daniel, Ann, and Hog Devil, are all 
back here — tipping tables, moving chairs, writing Hebrew from left to 
right, making shingle machines, throwing pumpkins up to the chamber 
floor — hold ! friends, don't " despise the day of small things " 



A DISCUSSION. 237 

That is tlie " easiest way of accounting for it." The Rev. J. Preston, 
missionary in Jamaica, adopted a rigid discipline with the blacks before 
he would admit them into the church, and the result was few conversions, 
few souls saved. " Old Tom " came to him one day and began to lec- 
ture him ; " Massa," said he " you are too tight ; you m2isi let 'em in 
easy ; then you get a big church, all willing to go to heaven, if they c;in 
go easy.'''' The " eisiest way " is what the world wants — truth is not 
what it is after, but mystery. 

Twenty years since, when Dr. Mussey was lecturing on temperance, 
he always met the argument — " if whiskey is not made to drink what is 
it made for ?" The Doctor always replied, " What are snakes made 
for .? " " Don't know," was always the response. " Eat them, then 
eat them, then," exclaimed the Professor — " if you can find any foul 
nuisance on the earth whose use you don't understand, it must be self- 
evident that it was made to eat or drink.'''' 

If this is not the position of the Spiritualists, then I have misappre- 
hended their reasoning. The "easiest way " I have heard used more 
times and by more men than all other arguments. A United States 
Senator remarked to Mr. Glreeley, in my presence, " If I believed in a 
spirit-future I should call it spirits, because it is the easiest way of ac- 
counting for it — but I don't believe in a future to the human spirit, and 
I don't know what the d — 1 to think of it." Sure enough, that is a fix, 
and a bad one, too. If we find a fact a little mysterious, that we don't 
understand readily, why it's a prima facie ghost — a ghost per se. 

Richard Baxter, of England, a Divine of strong mind, wrote a treat- 
ise to prove " the invisible world revealed," from the phenomena of 
witchcraft — and afl&rmed that any man who would not believe on suck 
testimony was an obstinate Sadducee. Cotton Mather attempted the 
same thing, in his Magnalia — but these and all the marvels of the He- - 
brew Scriptures have failed to convince men of the spirit-future — of a 
Spirit-world ; and the present spiritual clanjamphry has been opened 
np to show men the way up into the " kingdom come." All the won- 
ders of our Earth, which chemistry and philosophy has opened to our 
minds, seems lost upon us. Our bodies, with their sublime mechanism, 
are disregarded — myriads of worlds revolving in space — two thousand 
suns glittering on night's blue vault under the scope of the natural eye 
— centers of systems more stupendous than ours — countless hosts of 
planets revealed by the telescope lying beyond our ken — have all failed 
to teach us a God, and a spirit-future through his goodness ! We still 
demand that he shall tip tables, make noises, blow " Fabian's tin horn," 



238 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

swim axes, and dot an i. How longj Lord, how long, will man spit 
in the face of all thy teachings ? 

" The earth, the air, the ocean, are my altar." They are full of 
Grod, full of wisdom, full of mercy, full of goodness, full of blessings. 
But I will be patient. Bros. Willets and Capron begin to see through 
a, glass darkly — Bro. Fishbough has got sick of them — sure enough, 
as Bro. Hallock says, after years of trial, he is developed up to the 
sphere of devils. When the Arab, after having discovered, gave his 
followers alcohol, they drank, jumped back with amazement, and ex- 
claimed, " the Devil ! the Devil !" Buchanan, Tiffany, Courtney, 
Fishbough, Hallock, Ballou, Brittan, Davis, Capron, and Willets — a 
class of the most liberal and logical minds in America — are absolutely 
down on their knees, offering incense to the " Unknown God." 

For your edification, I will give a few more examples of spirit flying 
and lefting : 

Cotton Mather, who stood by and gloated like a wild beast over the 
death of the noble-hearted and manly Burroughs, a brother minister, 
says, "God had been pleased to leave this George Burroughs, that he 
had ensnared himself by several instances which he had formerly given 
of preternatural strength, which were now produced against him." He 
was a very small man. They proved that he took up a large gun — so 
heavy that strong men could not lift it at arm's length with both hands 
— behind the lock with one hand, and held it out. This was sworn to 
by several witnesses, of the first class — out of the " best society." 
They also proved, by two witnesses, that he placed his fore-finger in 
the muzzle of a seven-feet fowling-piece, and extended it to arm's 
length, like a pistol — which they, both stout men, could not do. Take 
anotlier fact : At the trial of Bridget Bishop, it was proved that, when 
she was passing the steeple-house, in Salem, '' she gave a look at the 
house, and^immediately a Demon," says the report, " invisibly entering 
the meeting-house, tore down a part of it ; they ran in, and found a 
board, strongly fastened with several nails, transported to another part 
of the house. Kerner states that the Seeress, in her magnetic moods, 
felt the attraction of the nails in the wall — and even told them of a 
knitting-needle in a cistern of water, whose attraction she felt. They 
found the needle, as she had informed them. Attraction between the 
human body and steel and iron can not be denied, and if the poor vic- 
tim had any connection with the detachicg of that board, it was by the 
magnetic attraction of her body. Burroughs and the woman both suf- 
fered death. B. had lost his wife, and her spirit had returned and 



A DISCUSSION. 239 

been seen by a set of old women who bad agreed witb ber to return and 
she had been greatly abused. A most malignant and in/ernal spirit 
characterized the whole proceedings in that tragedy of blood, in which 
twenty persons lost their lives to gratify personal spite and a love of 
notoriety. 

Cotton Mather showed himself a dishonest and blood-thirsty man, 
who scrupled not to hazard life to enhance his love of fame. The en- 
tire transactions show him to have been a treacherous villain of the 
darkest die. Upham, in his lectures, stamps him with this character- 
istic. Burroughs was a graduate of Harvard, and when arrested was 
the minister in Wells, a town in Maine. Upham remarks " that there 
is reason to fear that he fell a victim to the prejudice and hatred en- 
gendered in a parochial controversy some years before. The noble 
man was carried in a cart, with other victims, to ' Grallows Hill.' 
While on the ladder, he made a speech for the clearing of his inno- 
cency, with solemn and serious expressions, that all present greatly ad- 
mired them." To turn this sympathy, the black-hearted crew that had 
hung him, cried out that they saw the Devil behind him dictating what 
he said. This was enough. Dr. Cotton Mather — a mass of sin and 
vanity and love of temporal power — rode among the multitude, ex- 
claiming that it was no wonder that Mr. Burroughs appeared so well — 
the Devil could transform himself into an angel of light ! This fired 
the mob — they cut down his body — dragged it by the rope to a hollow — 
stripped his clothes from his body — and probably " cast lots for them," 
and covered him with " old garments " — threw his body, with two oth- 
ers, into a hole — trampled them down, and left them partly uncovered. 
Cases are not wanting among mediums where this malignant spirit of 
_29er56infl/ persecution has been attempted under the authority of spirits. 
I will drag every rat of them into daylight. 

Take another example of these mysterious movements of bodies. 
The body is a living one in this case. At the trial of Susannah Mar- 
tin, in Salem, it was proved that one John Kemble had agreed to pur- 
chase a picppy of her, and failed to do so, and procured one of some one 
else. She had uttered, in some one's hearing, " If I live, I will give 
him puppies enough," and a few days after, Kemble was coming oat 
of a piece of woods, and a small black cloud arose, in the northwest ; 
he " immediately felt a force upon him ; he could not avoid running 
upon stumps and trees that were before him. He was in the open road 
with an ax on his shoulder — yet he could not guide his body by his 
own will, but was impelled by a force. When he came to below the 



240 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

meeting-liouse, there appeared to him & puppy, -whioh. shot back between 
his legs, then forward ; he tried to cut it with his ax, but could not hit 
it ; the puppy ga/e a jump, and vanished into the ground." Poor pup ! 
" Soon a black puppy, somewhat bigger, appeared, flew at his body and 
throat, over his shoulder, one way, then the other. His heart began to 
fail him, he thought the dog would tear open his throat — he called on 
God and named the name of Christ and it vanished." 

Now for the philosophy of this thing. The force in the man's mind 
was connected with the cloud, and that a repulsion might have come 
from that source is no more improbable than that the moon attracts the 
ocean — but the puppy part strikes a death blow at all the shadows of 
ghostdom. That puppy that he did not buy — with the threat — was in 
his mind — the force whether real or imaginary impels him — he thinks 
at once of Mother Martin, an aged lady, (young ladies, if pretty, are 
never witches,) and her puppy was in his mind, and a pair of puppies 
shoot out before his imagination, and nearly killed the poor man. That 
fact as firmly establishes a law of mental reflection, as the sun and shad- 
ows do natural reflection. There is no escaping from this construction 
of these facts — the Devil has given this earth " puppies enough " — the 
human mind wants something substantial. 

When we suppose that these phenomena are new, we deceive our- 
selves. Cornelius Agrippa, the greatest scholar of his age, espoused 
the doctrine of Demonology and "Witchcraft — but toward the close of 
the fifteenth century he renounced the whole and warned men with all 
his power to avoid such foolishness. At this, Paulus Jovius then ac- 
cused him of being a sorcerer, and of writing against it to conceal his 
practice of it, and accused him of always having with him a demon in 
the form of a black dog. Before he died Jovius asserts that he took 
ofi" the " enchanted collar," and cried, " Get thee hence, cursed beast, 
that has utterly destroyed me," neither was the dog ever seen after. 

There are many puppy cases on record. The Devil was seen all 
over the land of gimblets in the shape of puppies, dogs, flies, spiders, 
" hlack men, all dressed up.^'' He wears clothes sometimes, just like all 
ghosts ; but one naked ghost have I ever found in the thousands I have 
read of. 

That the movement of ponder aMe bodies, by will-power, is an old oc- 
currence, I give a few examples to that point. The Heathen gods have 
each his distinctive character. Vulcan was the artificer of heaven and 
earth, and his skill was not only great in this line of creaiivg, " but he 
constructed fumittore endowed with a self -moving principle, and would 



A DISCUSSION. 241 

present itself for use, or recede at the will of its proprietor." — (G-od- 
win's Necromancies.) Consequently we find one of the chief mechanics 
making furniture that was moved at will — it was enchanted^ you see. 

Simon Magus understood this. He made chairs and tables move at 
his will, as Miss Beecher did ; he animated statues, made a sickh reap 
without hands—Jlew down from a rock — make himself invisible — look 
like a sheep, goat, serpent, &c. Simon attributes it directly to his toill 
— so says E.omanus and Sinaita, two fathers of the church. 

Elymas, the sorcerer, withstood Paul to his face before the Grovernor 
of Cyprus. Paul smote him with " blindness for a season " — (Acts, xiii.) 
This act of the apostle is wholly explained by biology. The effect was 
produced by a mental impression on Elymas. 

The statues of Dedalus, an Athenian sculptor, were endowed with 
self-movement. He invented the wedge, ax, and plummet. — ((xod- 
win's.) Amphion was ruler of Thebes — and by magic and music made 
the stones move after and follow him, and arrange themselves as he de- 
sired. He proposed to wall his city in the same way — so says Horace. 

Merlin, a great English magician, lived in the latter part of the fif- 
teenth century. He was begotten by an angel — and was a favorite 
with kings. When the Saxon's invaded England, three hundred Brit- 
ish nobles were murdered. Merlin undertook to build them an eternal 
monument — and Stonehenge is that work. These stone, (larger than 
^ose in the Shetland Ise, measured by Dr. Hibbert,) by unknown 
means were carried from Africa to Ireland. (A ghost did it, probably.) 
Merlin's workmen could not move them — and he tried his magic — they 
rose high in the oAr — pursued the course Merlin had marked out — and 
finally settled in Wiltshire. That beats your ax story, by considerable. 
This story, recorded by Spenser, the poet, probably grew out of stone- 
moving on a smaller scale — but refers to this class of mysteries. 

One remark is demanded before I notice your wonders. History 
that can not be refuted settles the fact that magic was known to the 
Magi, the Chaldeans, to the Egyptians, to Moses, the prophets, the sor- 
cerers, Christ, and the apostles — six or eight Popes in succession prac- 
ticed it — Melancthon and many moderns were also to some extent ac- 
quainted with it.s Its whole range of wonders were found in clairvoy- 
ance, willing matter^ mesmerizing, biology, and favoring the production 
of these conditions by burning incense and herbs in the room of the 
priestess — as in the oracles. When these conditions rose spontaneously 
among men, as they often have, the people and the learned have mis- 
took it for the Devil, spirits, witches. It is doubtful how far the learned. 
g See Appendix, Note 6. 
16 



242 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

suspected the real source of these wonders. The people and persons 
among -whom this psychological temperament has been most fully de- 
veloped, are the Hebrews — the prophets, Christ and the followers. 
Christ seems to have conceived the sublime and benevolent idea of re- 
generating the entu'e race, by wielding them through this channel — and 
whether he clearly discerned the philosophy of his system is doubtful. 
That he represents the moral center of our earth, I fully believe. His 
moral maxims can not be altered or made clearer, by any possible form 
of words. The field of nature he certainly did not touch, as we learn — 
it remained for Newton and Herschell to fix those laws in the minds of 
men. I believe in the law of prophecy, as inherent in the human mind 
— concealed in our inner and spiritual nature — and when I touch your 
facts, let it be understood that I reverence truth wherever found — and 
repudiate error wherever found. 

The fact of Elisha comes first. The fact that Elisha was clairvoyant 
is certain, and that he understood the will influence over matter is 
probable. If a spirit brought up the ax, what did he want of the stick ? 
It only served to fix the faith or will of Elisha on the ax — the spirit did 
not want it to sit on, surely, while he fished up the ax. All extra- 
ordinary acts were ascribed to angels, in the days of the apostles — the 
occurrence is briefly stated, and gives no means of explanation. A 
number of facts occur in the lives of sorcerers, showing that they could 
open prison doors, by magic force, or will. 

The facts of the resurrection are contradictory, and the amgd seen 
and the young man clothed in long white raiment are mental reflections of 
the images in the minds of visitors. Angels wear robes only in mythol- 
ogy. The numerous specters of the New Testament are completely 
explained by mental rejlection. The case of Philip is paralleled by nu- 
merous other cases of invisibility and air-riding. 

Pythagoras was seen in two places,, thirty miles apart, on the same 
day. Many similar cases might be cited ; they are explained in one of 
two ways— they rendered themselves biologically invisible to those pres- 
ent, or actually rode off in the air, as Abaris did who rode over the 
world astride of an arrow, without eating anything. Herodotus affirms 
this story. Dr. Faustus rode through the air also — and ascended into 
the clouds in the presence of the people of Constantinople — entered the 
harem by magic, through bolts and bars — and was killed by the Devil 
who had bought him soul and body ; he was found torn limb from limb, 
and his blood spattered on the wall. The Doctor once raised the ghost 
of Alexander for Charles Y., the Emporor of Germany. 
^ See Appendix, Note H. 



A DISCUSSION. 



243 



My remark, "rarefying the od-force," was occasioned by a recollec- 
tion of Good's description of the flying eagle — he states that the bones 
and quills of the eagle are filled with rarefied air when in flight. The 
nerve aura, if susceptible of rarefaction, can not be shown to be so by 
any measurement we possess. If a spirit carried Philip thirty miles — 
who acted as medmm on the occasion } Did the spirit ride Philip, or 
vice versa. The story refutes itself if taken literally. 

A similar story is told of the Grovernor of Mascon, Burgundy. A 
work published by Thomas Beard, 1612, says, " It was a lamentable 
spectacle that happened to the governor of Mascon, who was caught up 
in the midst of dinner time and carried three times around the city in 
sight of all the people." I admit that it don't come up to Philip's ride, 
but it goes ahead of Kerner's stories. 

Kerner's cases are probably veritable facts, but in no wise demand a 
spirit agency. When the Seeress stood up — Kerner often put his fin- 
gers to her's, both having their hands extended, and he lifted her from 
the floor with perfect ease. The nerve aura of the human body seems to 
be generated in great quantities in such persons, and when it passes 
from them through every pore of the body it envelops them in a " lus- 
trous light." Mrs. Whitman speaks of these lights seen passing from 
the bodies of persons. 

Your questions following the example from Kerner involve our whole 
supject — and do not, as a whole, demand remark. The condition of 
body seen in the Seeress, in St. Theresa, in numerous witches, tried by 
water, settle beyond doubt the fact that these bodies in this magnetic 
state float on water — the law of gravitation being overcome by the men- 
tal and physical conditions. To evade this conclusion we must abandon 
all history. Why did not Christ confer the power on Peter .? Philip is 
the onlj flying apostle we read of, and Peter never rose in his condi- 
tions even to Gordon's state. Gordon in his mood for flying, I doubt 
not, may walk on water. Conditions of body that absolutely preclude 
sinking in water would enable Christ to walk on the waves. When 
friend Gordon goes up, I will attend to Enoch's case. Is will involved 
in these conditions ? Christ seemed to think so — faith was the one 
requisite of all his miracles. Faith is intensified will., and will is iiUensi- 
Hed, desire — and desire is mind put in motion. Christ told them that 
niountoins could be plucked up and cast into the sea by faith. 

I might legitimately refuse these points any notice, and T am aware 
that any notice of them places me under the " odiiovi theohgkum.''^ If 
you have brought them in to gain an advantage bv skulking under the 



244 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

belief of the ehurcli — and letting me bear tbe odium, your motive is not 
a high one and will fail of its desired end. The church is anxious to get 
rid of Spiritualism, and favors my views, so far as I know, and I frankly 
say to them, if my theory prevails, the miracles of the Old and New 
Scriptures are the result of the natural laws of our physical, mental, and 
moral organization. If I am wrong I shall be corrected by the intelli- 
gence of the age. Seek all the advantage possible from this admission, 
truth is eternal. 

The case of table moving at Rufus Elmer's is a good experiment, and 
needs explanation — it comes under the law of all physical movements 
caused by the human will — the medium being out of the roorii don't aid 
you at all. That minds en rajpport aid each other when miles apart is 
certain. 

You offer me " one thoiisand " human wills to repeat the experiment. 
To make the " conditions " all good, I must have the same medium, the 
same persons, same table, and the same mood of mind and body, and con- 
ditions of atmosphere. Our mediums have no faith here. I have knocked 
it all out of them. Tour notions of " like conditions,'''' is vague indeed. 
Mr. Gordon is doubtless a remarkable medium, and that same company 
may never be able to do the same thing again. The experiments of 
Miss Beecher, and numerous others, takes the wiind out of your facts. 

Now I have a fact for you : Josephus states that the fiery sword 
hung over Jerusalem for a year, (a mental reflection.) One night 
the temple was beset by a strange /orce, and one of the ponderous bra- 
zen gates, which required twenty men to move on its hinges, was lifted 
from its sockets ; the priests going to the temple for sacrifice heard a 
rushing multitude of voices-, saying, " begone ! " Call that the work of 
spirits } Then Peter's case, spirits ; then the rock rolling at the door 
of the sepulcher, spirits ; and Philip's ride from Gaza to Azotus, spirits 
— and we get a class of marvels, based on the power of spirits to move 
brazen gates, large rocks, men''s bodies, and iron bolts, without the aid of 
your mediums. If they could do these wonders then, they can noto with- 
out the aid of human bodies — yet the best combination of your forces, 
with five years of spirit aid, have moved 800 pounds ; with a battery 
they wrote some Yankee Hebrew, and stiffened EdiuarcVs legs, alone ; 
they have moiM a pen, and wrote Mrs. Minor and Simmons, and dotted 
the i. Christ positively afiirms that men, by /aiV/i might "move mountains 
into the sea. " Amphion tDdlled his city by will-force or magic, Merlin built 
Stonehenge, and began to wall his city in the same way — so say credi- 
ble historians. History has many allusions to a strange, mysterious force. 
I hold it to be within our own sphere. " What shall we do with our 
hands.?" Yours truly, B.W.RICHMOND. 



BKITTABT AND EICHMOIfD'S BISCITSSION. 

NUMBER SIX. 

MYSTERIOUS MOVEMENTS OF PONDERABLE BODIES. 

Dear Sir : I am now prepared to resume my observations on this 
phase of the Spiritual phenomena, but, before introducing other facts, 
it may not be unprofitable to diverge for a moment from the course I 
design to pursue. A passing notice of your fundamental position may 
check the effusion of ink and save my friend much valuable time and 
labor, and this must be a desideratum with a physician who has an ex- 
tensive practice, especially if he travels " in a muddy region " and the 
roads are unsettled. 

In your reply to my first letter you admit the existence of spirits, and 
then gravely charge me with reasoning from premises wholly assumed 
and utterly indefensible. I invite attention to your language : " We 
can not allow you to assume that spirits are back here, till you show they 
can come agreeably to the laws of matter. They are bodies, and must 
obey the same law that controls atoms and globes." You then compare 
the souls of men, in their relations to gravitation, to ' balloons inflated 
with hydrogen gas,'' and calculate the rapidity with which they must in- 
evitably ascend until they find their ' local position as determined by 
the laws of gravitation.' You seem to think that this is the pivot 
whereon the logical issue of this whole matter is to turn. Now I pro- 
pose to show that the assumption, concerning the whereabouts of spirits, 
is all on your side. 

You have recorded the admission that spirits exist, and it is worthy 
of remark that the only plam where you can be sure they do reside, is 
here. All human spirits live on earth at least so long as they remain 
in the body. This world is the scene of their labors, and here are 
numerous objects, it may be, for which they have strong and a'most 
deathless affinities. And yet you confidently assume that every spirit 
that dissolves its connection with the body, instantly leaves the earth by 
a physical necessity which it has no power to resist. You attempt to • 
sustain this assumption by a species of sophistry the very anatomy of 
which is visible through the frail disguise it wears. Neither the facta 
mnder discussion nor the laws of being afford you the slightest counte- 



246 A DISCUSSION. 

nance, and it may not be improper, ere you charge me with the as- 
sumption that " spirits are hack Aere," to froxe that they hate ever neces- 
sarily been away, in any sense that regards their specific locality. In 
these remarks I remember your argument as distinctly as I perceive its 
fallacy. You assume that, the spirit being lighter than air must of ne- 
cessity 'go up,' precisely as a " balloon " ascends when it is filled with 
hydrogen. Here I wish to exhibit a due respect to the inward con- 
sciousness as well as for the outward experience of men, and I frankly 
confess that, if there are any spirits who have no voluntary agency of 
their own — souls inflated with gas — it is possible they may go up just as 
you describe, until they find their " local position agreeably to the laws 
of gravitation." But as some human souls may, perchance, possess as 
much voluntary power as you ascribe to " eagies,^^ it is no less probable 
that they may be able to stay dotcn, as easily as eagles go up^ regard- 
less of their specific gravity. According to your philosophy men in the 
flesh can walk, run, and sail against wind and tide ; aquatic fowls can 
dive into the liquid element and remain beneath the surface ; eagles, 
and other birds, have power to ascend into the transparent ether above 
the region of the clouds, in opposition to the laws to which the soul is 
alleged, by you, to be strictly subordinate — and all because they seve- 
rally possess voluntary powers adequate to the resistance of the forces 
that govern the unorganized and lifeless elements. 

Strange as it may seem, to this ' higher law ' the soul is denied even 
the remotest relation. The human spirit, the highest earthly creation 
of God, endowed with Divine attributes and almost infinite capacities, 
alone is made an exception. You deny to the spirit any voluntary 
agency whatever. The God-inspired nature of man is thus seen to be 
degraded by your material philosophy to a plane beneath " beasts and 
birds and creeping things." Alas! to what gross and graceless issues 
are we tending when learned Doctors reason thus of the soul! Your 
mode of treating the subject shows, in a most significant manner, that 
you place the spirit on a level with things that have none of the powers 
of life and thought. You are unmindful of the sublime Image it bears ; 
you show a total absence of all faith in its essential attributes, and hence 
in its very existence ; and yet you are quick to repudiate — with what 
propriety let Christians or Infidels judge — the first intimation that your 
philosophy is founded in Materialism. The Poet says, 
" 'T is distance lends encliantment to the view," 

and the force of your argument, like the efi"ect of certain pictures, is 
found to depend on its being viewed from a remote position. 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 247 

Now, my friend, as the spirits of men ^o reside here, during the entire 
period of their life in the flesh, you are at liberty to prove, if you are 
adequate to the task, that they invariably go away when these earthlj 
tabernacles are dissolved. When you demonstrate that the soul must 
necessarily dwell in another and far distant part of the Universe, merely 
because its external relations and mode of life are metamorphosed, it 
will be time for you to charge me with assuming the fundamental points 
in the present controversy. I will now proceed with my citation of 
facts illustrative of the capacity of spirits to move ponderable bodies, 
and will, for a while, depend on the nature of the facts themselves to 
prove that spirits are really here. 

On the evening of April 15th, 1852, I was at the house of Pvufus 
Elmer, Esq., in Springfield, Mass., when David A. Wells, Professor of 
Electricity and Chemistry at Cambridge, was present with other intelli- 
gent gentlemen for the purpose of witnessing the mysterious phenomena. 
Kemarkable manifestations occurred on that occasion through Daniel I). 
Plume. Prof. Wells and several other gentlemen, all of whom had been 
previously skeptical, made a written statement of what transpired in 
their presence, which was subsequently published in the Eastern papers. 
I have only space for the following extract : 

" While no visible power was employed to raise the table, or otherwise move it 
from its position — it was seen to rise clear of the floor, and to float in the atmo- 
sphere for several seconds, as if sustained by some denser medium than air. 
Mr. Wells seated himself on the table, which was rocked to and fro with great 
violence, and at length it poised itself on two legs, and remained in this position 
for some thirty seconds, when no other person was in contact with the table. 

" Occasionally we were made conscious of the occurrence of a powerful shock 
which produced a vibratory movement of the floor of the apartment. It seemed 
like the motion occasioned by distant thunder or the firing of ordnance far away 
— causing the tables, chairs, and other inanimate objects, and all of us to tremble 
in such a manner that the effect was both seen and felt. In the whole exhibition 
we were constrained to admit that there was an almost constant manifestation of 
some intelligence which seemed to be independent of the circle. 

" During these occurrences the room was well lighted, the lamp was frequently 
placed on and under the table, and every possible opportunity was afi"orded us 
for the closest inspection, and we submit this one emphatic declaration : We 
know that we were not imposed upon nor deceived. 

The statement from which the above is extracted, was signed by 
David A. Wells and others. It is introduced in this connection for the 
reason that all the parties were among the last persons who could be 
imposed upon, and especially because Prof. Wells, being an electrician,; 
is eminently qualified to judge whether electricity is competent to pro- 



248 A DISCUSSION. 

duce the results. Without expressing any definite opinion he at once 
rejected the assumption that makes this agent the chief cause. I am 
informed that Prof. Mapes, on witnessing similar phenomena, emphat- 
ically expressed the same opinion. Indeed, I am sure that, no one at 
all familiar with the laws that govern electrical phenomena will pretend 
for a moment that, the agent itself is adequate to produce the eifects, or 
that the human mind in the body is capable of directing it, even with 
the aid of all the apparatus now in use, to the accomplishment of simi- 
lar results. 

On the 8th of August, 1S52, several gentlemen were assembled at 
the residence of Ward Cheney, Esq., Manchester, Conn., where, in the 
course of the evening, very remarkable demonstrations occurred. One 
of the Editors of the Hartford Times was present, and from his account 
of the exhibition, as published in that paper, I cut the following para- 
graph : 

Suddenly, and without any expectation on the part of the company, the 
medium, Mr. Hume, was taken up in the air! I had hold of his hand at the 
time, and I felt of his feet — they were lifted a foot from the floor ! He jDalpitated 
from head to foot with the contending emotions of joy and fear which choked his 
utterance. Again and again he was taken from the floor, and the third time he 
was carried to the ceiling of the apartment, with which his hands and head came 
in gentle contact. I felt the distance from the soles of his boots to the floor and 
it was nearly three feet ! Others touched his feet to satisfy themselves. 

Mr, Gordon has several times been taken up in a similar man- 
ner. This has twice occurred in this city — in both cases at the 
residence of our distinguished friend, Dr. John F. Gray, in Lafay- 
ette-place. In both instances the phenomenon transpired in presence of 
a number of intelligent and scientific observers. In one case Gordon 
was carried not less than sixty feet^ through difierent apartments, and 
was supported at irregular distances of from four to eight feet from the 
floor, while performing this aerial journey. 

To attempt to refer these and other similar facts to the action of 
minds in the body, appears to me like trifling with the whole subject. 
The common experience and the common sense of the world, alike dis- 
credit all such pseudo-explanations. Not Faith alone, but Science and 
Philosophy stand up to rebuke the assumption. It is well known that 
science has never admitted these facts within her pale and none have 
entertained them in her name. This world's philosophy shuns and out- 
laws them, and cowards, who dread nothing so much as conversion to an 
upopular truth, flee from their presence as from a magazine of curses. 
The sava.ns who have been accustomed to call loudly for fads are, for 



ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 249 

the most part, duml, now that new facts are likely to explode some of 
their material conclusions. There are honorable exceptions, I am happy 
to acknowledge, but generally they are anxious to keep out of sight of 
these facts, as hypocrites are to evade the terrors of " the last judgment." 
But the facts are of too frequent occurrence to escape observation, or to 
leave the candid inquirer without the grounds of a rational conviction. 
These facts must inevitably strengthen the believers in revealed religion, 
and they^ especially, have a more than mortal interest in this question. 
If it was a miracle for Peter to walk on the water, and for Philip to be 
taken up in the air and borne away, it is no less a miracle that the 
bodies of the Seeress of Prevorst, Peter of Alcantara, St. Theresa, 
Daniel D. Hume and Henry C. Grordou, are made to float on the water 
or in the atmosphere, in modern times, and before the eyes of living 
men, who calmly but fearlessly bear witness to these things. Now I 
submit that any mode whereby you may be enabled to account for the 
modern facts, will equally well explain the ancient examples of the same 
class. The combined wisdom of four thousand years has failed to trace 
these and other mystical phenomena to material causes, and if your 
cou'p de main is successful, it will demonstrate all revelation to consist in 
distempered dreams of undisciplined and erratic minds, and miracle- 
working, from the time of Moses to the present hour, will be proved to 
be a kind of scientific jugglery employed by the wise to deceive the ig- 
norant. I am ready to follow Truth wherever she leads the way, but 
feel quite sure that you are taking the wrong direction, and had you the 
ability to accomplish the purpose to which you seem to have devoted 
your present labors, your power would suffice to wreck the faith of the 
world ! 

The following is extracted from Dr. R. T. Hallock's description, be- 
fore the New-York Conference, of some interesting manifestations which 
occurred, not long since, in presence of a number of witnesses, at the 
house of Mr. Partridge. 

Ou the table around which we were seated, were loose papers, a lead pencil, 
two candles and a glass of water. The table was used by the spirits in respond- 
ing to our questions, and the first peculiarity we observed, was, that however 
violently the table was moved, everything on it retained its position. The table, 
which was mahogany and pefectly smooth, was elevated to an angle of about 
thirty degrees, and held there, with everything remaining on it as before. It 
was truly surprising to see a lead pencil retaining a position of perfect rest, on a 
polished surface inclined at such an angle. It remained as if glued to the table, 
and so of everything else on it. The table was repeatedly made to resume its 
ordinary position and then its inclination as before, as if to fasten upon us the 
conviction that what we saw was no deception of the senses, but a veritable man- 



250 A DISCUSSION. 

ifestation of spirit-preseuce and of spirit-power. They were then requested to 
elevate the table to the same angle as before, and to detach the pencil, retaining 
every thing else in precise position. This was complied with. The table was 
elevated, the pencil rolled off, and evei-ything else remained. They were then 
asked to repeat the experiment, retaining the pencil and every thing else upon 
the table stationary, except the glass tumbler, and to let that slide oil. This also 
was assented to. All the articles retained their positions but the tumbler which 
slid off and was caught in the hands of one of the party, as it fell from the lower 
edge of the table. 

The phenomena here described illustrate the complex modes which 
often characterize these exhibitions of spiritual power. It will be per- 
ceived that while the strange force was applied to raise the table, and 
t,o hold it at the angle described, a power equally mysterious, but ope- 
rating in a wholly diiferent way, was employed to retain the other 
objects, each in its respective position, or to release them, one by one, 
as requested. Why did those objects neglect to follow the eternal law 
of gravitation. By what unknown principle of electro-magnetism was 
the glass made to adhere to the polished surface of that inclined plane } 
What unaccountable od-force, held the table wp^ while it held the other 
objects down, with a force superior to their specific gravity ? What gi- 
gantic human will operated on that occasion — without knoiving it, too — 
and actually acco?nplished what a thousand men can not do if they try "< 
So long as no man on earth has power to produce like results, I deem it 
quite unnecessary to remind the sensible and candid reader, that the 
phenomena under consideration infallibly indicate the presence of some 
foreign intelligence, endowed with unearthly powers of perception and 
supra-mortal energy. 

Some time in November last I witnessed a most interesting exhibition 
of the powers of the mysterious agents, at the house of Anson Atwood, 
Esq., in Bridgeport, Conn. A little girl of some ten years of age, 
daughter of Mr. A., was the medium. Nine or ten persons were present, 
and the room was thoroughly lighted during the entire exhibition which 
I am about to describe. The spirits had previously promised to play on 
the guitar ; accordingly. Miss Emeline Mallory, the only member of the 
circle at all accustomed, to use the instrument, furnished hers for the oc- 
casion. The guitar was wholly out of tune when it was placed on the 
floor under a large table, round which the circle was formed. Soon after 
it was delivered into the hands of the Invisibles, the strings began to 
vibrate, and it was speedily manifest that the musicians incognito were 
tuning the instrument. At length, this was accomplished in a most 
perfect manner, and the unseen performers continued to play for more 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND ^51 

than an hour to the astonisment of the whole company. During the 
performance the instrument often moved out from beneath the table, 
where it could be distinctly seen, and as often retired. At one time it 
assumed an erect position, and then it repeatedly rose from the floor, 
striking the head against the under side of the table in answer to ques- 
tions. Also, while moying about in a horizontal position, the head of 
the instrument would rise a few inches from the floor.^ in answer to the 
oral and mental questions of different persons. At other times the an- 
swers were given by striking a single string. Occasionally, the guitar 
would approach some member of the company, and in several instances 
it pressed against them with a force of ten or fifteen pounds. As the 
guitar was moving out from beneath the table, traveling head foremost 
like " a thing of life," some one observed that the head and neck (which 
were black) appeared like a serpent, whereupon, instantly, the instru- 
ment imitated the motions of the reptile in a most life-like manner. 
During all these eccentric movements the music continued, almost with- 
out interruption. For some time the spirits kept up what are called the 
harmonic sounds, which — as those acquainted with the instrument will 
understand — are produced by pressing lightly, with the fingers of the left 
hand, on certain /^re/f^, and then sweeping the strings near the bridge 
with the right hand. The mysterious musicians played in what is tech- 
nically termed the arpeggio style, and in different keys. 

It may be proper to add that, for some time during the progress of 
this interesting performance, the medium, at my request, sat with her 
feet on the round of the chair, while the hands of every individual could 
be seen by the entire company. Miss Mallory assures me that she could 
not by any means, with the free use of both hands, produce the soicnds, 
to say nothing of the accompanying movements of the instrument itself, 
which were produced on the guitar by the invisible harmonists. 

Now, who played on that guitar .? It certainly was not the members 
of the circle generally, for, be it remembered, not one in the room, Miss 
Mallory alone excepted, could execute the simplest exercise. Did Miss 
M. perform on that occasion r If she did, it is passing strange that not 
one of the company was aware of the fact. The young lady herself 
was of course entirely unconscious of the slightest agency in any part of 
the performance. If you require us to believe that she played on the 
instrument, by some occult action of the mind on some invisible impon- 
derable agent, which you can not explain and the reader can not com- 
prehend, you offer us a miracle infinitely more incredible than all the 
claims of the spirits. Besides, how could Miss M. produce results with- 



252 A DISCUSSION. 

out trying -which, she is confessedly unable to accomplisli with her utmost 
efforts ? And if one can play on the guitar without using the hands, so 
much better than they can when the hands are exercised without re- 
straint, of what possible utility are fingers to those who perform on 
stringed instruments ? " I pause for a reply." 

No attempt has as yet been made to account for such facts, as are 
herein presented-7-without the intervention of spiritual agency — that is 
not, in my judgment, at war with all true philosophy and utterly repug- 
nant to the common understanding of men. The attempt to refer them 
to the laws of physics, demonstrates the want of close discrimination and 
judgment, respecting the power of material agents, and the capacity of 
the human mind in its mundane relations. I desire to avoid a too confi- 
dent tone, even in giving expression to my deepest convictions, but I 
trust you will pardon me if I am forced to regard your labors, in this 
direction, as a species of scientific Quixotism which may amuse, but can 
scarcely convince the reader. I am, faithfully thine, 

S. B. BEITTAN. 



EEPLY TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

NUMBER SIX. 

My Dear Sir : But a little time since you positively told me you 
could not be " diverted " from your course by my " sophisms " — that no 
'''•rejoinder''^ would be made till your ^'•analysis'''' of the facts was 
" completed " — and after this solemn asseveration not to be turned aside, 
I find you in number sis attempting a " rejoinder " to what you term my 
fundamental position. Now, my friend, don't you feel that you have 
done very wrong — that you have showed a great want of that firmness 
that is ever essential to a high purpose } I will forgive you this time — 
remembering as I do that a man of stronger nerves in our day made 
most bitter complaint of a galling " fire in the rear." But, positively, 
it don't look well for the leader of an army io face about and peck flints 
with a petit corporal. " About face " — " forward march " — as you 
agreed to — I will shoot easy. 

Attention is again called to that position. Spirits are described as 
being composed of imponderable matter. S. B. Brittan says, Shekinah, 
vol. I, p. 631, " The absurdity of believing the soul to be and yet to be 
nothing., is left to be disposed of by those who entertain such an opinion." 
Page 64, he says, " The soul is an organized spiritual body — a form 
within a form." Now, friend B., out of your own mouth will I condemn 
you. If your own words are types of your opinions, then the highest 
idea of the sow/, the spirit existence, is, that it is composed of matter — 
ethereal to be sure — gas, outside and in — gas, inflated with a more rare- 
fied gas — still matter — still " material," and yet you constantly bandy 
that foolish epithet — materialists. You may catch gudgeons in such 
traps. Your whole system, from beginning to end, is materialism., and 
you will not dispute it after what you have written. Sincerity is above 
all price ; do not wrong yourself — you can not wrong me. All Spiritu- 
alists aflirm that the soul., spirit, or spiritual body, is composed of mat- 
ter., and you refer to the most subtile elements in nature for figures to 
represent it — viz : electricity. 

As all matter., from globes to atoms., is controled by this law, I put 
your spirit bodies, made of imponderable fluid., under this law. " Who 



:g54 A DISCUSSION. 

shall weigh the lightning," says Job. All hodies near the earth, lighter 
than air, are driven upward by gravitation, and the force increases as 
the weight of the body decreases ; if their bodies are as light as hydrogen^ 
they can not remain here but by the exertion of immense will-force^ if 
they are imponderahh as the electric Jlidd, the force which would impel 
them from the earth would be incomprehensible. All human ingenuity 
applied to the dead body can not detect the fact that heft has left it. 
The greatest force your spirits have exerted, with the aid of your best 
medium, is about 800 pounds, and that being a measure of theiv power, 
they can not retu.m to the earth by will-force, neither can they remain 
here after being detached from the body ; the imponderable soul-body 
would inevitably leave the earth. 

It is yourself that has denied the human spirit an independent force — 
you asserted that " the first example " of " unaided human will " mov- 
ino- matter could not be a;iven. From the first I have contended that the 
will-force of the human mind was involved in these phenomena — and 
you have as constantly denied it. The Editor of Mr. Spear's Life of 
Murray argues that the human soul is not an independent power. The 
eagWs body is weighable matter, and his will-force so far counteracts 
the law of gravitation as to rise to a high altitude — but was his body as 
light as electricity, we see at once he could not hold himself on the 
earth by his present will-force. This is a plain proposition in physics, 
and you can not evade it — all impartial minds will pronounce it fair and 
logical. Show us that the vjill-force of spirits can hold their bodies near 
the earth — " pr oh abilities " don't answer in the domain of comprehended 
laws. That I deny the " remotest relation " of the soul to the " higher 
law " of will-force is wholly a mistake ; all that I have written testifies 
against your statement. The records will show the fact that I was the 
first and only man in this controversy that was bold enough to contend 
that we could will matter — using imponderable fluid as an instrument of 
motion. When I stated this to Mr. Greeley, he exclaimed, " What can 
not the human mind do !" Seeing the bottomless gulf through which 
your whole theory is descending, you piously charge me of being " un- 
mindful of the sublime image it (the soul) bears," and " showing a 
total absence of faith in its essential attributes — and hence in its very 
existence." You ought to •■' thank Grod," my dear sir, " that you are 
not as other men," when you call on " Christians and Infidels " to judge 
of my materialism. " The sow/ is an organized spiritual hoAj " — (She- 
KiNAH.) Your highest idea of " Spiritual,'''' as all your reasoning 
shows, is clearly nothing mo?e than a purified or rare form of matter. 



ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 255 

The world is full of examples of men who deny the legitimate and logi- 
cal results of their own theories and positions. " To what gross and 
graceless issues are we tending !" 

I only restate the position on gravitation to impress it on your read- 
ers — it has not, nor can not be answered. Again, all our knowledge of 
organized life, shows respiration, in some form, to be essential — our 
" organized Spiritual body " must have an atmosphere — that atmo- 
sphere must correspond to the rarity of its elements— our gross com- 
pound of nitrogen and oxygen can not be breathed by spirits. Will you 
show us that it can .'' Perhaps, like Swedenborg's moon spirits, they 
have an " air sack " in the bowels I admit, and firmly believe, in the 
eternity of spirits ; but that no more settles their locality ^ than admit- 
ing your existence would prove your residence in California. Formerly 
my faith rested on assertion, and the universal impression has often 
been wrong — and is no certain guide to truth. 

You have seen fit to question my belief in a spiritual future, and I 
venture a few thoughts on that subject. Two forces are seen operating 
throughout the Universe — these two forces combined form a circle or 
impulse. Every planetary system has its center or sun — this corres- 
ponds to the centripetal force, and planetary systems around suns repre- 
sent the centrifugal force — and then again both these forces are confined 
in each sun and in each planet, hence suns and planets roll on their 
axis — and planets around suns — and suns and systems around other 
systems — and those of necessity, as analogy would show, around some 
grand center that exceeds the whole in force, and controls all. 

The primary origin of all fo7-ce is in intelligence, and intelligence, as 
I comprehend it, involves these two forces ; and now let us turn in upon 
ourselves and see what we find. We see first intelligence and matter — 
or soul and body — these acting and reacting produce mind, or thought 
— a third. The two forces acting at right angles produce a third ; in 
physics it is rotation and revolution; in mind, it produces thought — or 
mental circles. The soul answers to the sun — it is our sion-point or 
centripetal force- — the body to the planetary systems — or the centrifugal 
force — the mind to the motion in these systems as the result of the two 
— the spirit — the going forth — the proceeding from these two antago- 
nizing forces. Man in our animal creation represents the centrifugal 
force — woman the centripetal force — the sun point of the moral Uni- 
verse. Man is the wisdom principle — the self ship of the system ; wo- 
man the love, or will principle — the benevolence — the " love-your-negh- 
Sor-as-your-seZ/" "-principle. As all systems have a common center, 



256 A DISCUSSION. 

so must man have a common center — and the forces beicg dual, the 
moral and intellectual center will be found respectively in the two sexes. 
Christ, in this theory, represents woman, the " seed of the woman " was 
to bruise the serpenfs head. Christ is the moral center of the Universe. 
Man was excluded from his being — as it is represented. Newton may 
justly be called the intellectual center of our Universe. Now, as this 
law must be universal, every planet, every nation, every tribe, every 
family, has its center, its strongest forces. Schlegel, one of the pro- 
foundest G-erman writers, though a Catholic, declares that all the an- 
cient systems of religion are based on a trinity — on two forces jproducing 
a third. The system of Fo, ia China, corresponds nearly to that of 
Christ's — that of Taosse, in India, to that of Mahomet ; the two first 
represent the love -principle, the two last the self-principle. " God is 
one God, and Mahomet is his prophet." I — I — self — self. 

This theory supplies all nations and tribes with a religion — and rea- 
son adapted to its main idea, and thus has it always been. This system 
supplies the peopled hosts of planetary worlds with a moral and intellect- 
ual center. It supplies all being with light and intelligence — regulated 
wholly by the point from which they start. If self be the center of 
movement — the system is ellifticol^ cometary, the center of attraction 
on one side all self. If love to God, right., sincerity, be the common 
center, then the system is balanced, and plays harmoniously. I drop 
in these thoughts to prevent misapprehension, and return to man 

Man being a " little Universe," involves the two forces in his 
being — the sun and planetary force — the centripetal and centrifu- 
gal ; on these two forces rests the perpetuity of Deity, and the eter- 
nity of man's existence. K force exactly balanced, by a friction, is an 
eternal rest ; two forces exactly balanced, and in motion, are eternal 
movement. How the inde-pendent movement was first brought about, I 
can not see. If I could, I should be Cod. Man is an exact epitome of 
this independent force. 

Let us beware that we don't get self in the center, and run eternally 
backward. Here 33 the grand secret of the death of nations. Self, the 
center of all political systems, being a scattering, false force, has doomed 
every nation and individual who revolves around it. Well did that 
grand central mind of our age — the mind of Kossuth — utter the fearful 
thought that no nation now on the earth has any true future as a nation ; 
they are not based on love — right — the true center of all harmonious 
human existence. Woman, the true moral center of the sexes, must be 
summoned from her darkness into the all-pervading light of this great 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND 257 

truth — and from the burning sun-point of the mother's heart let her 
distil the warm dews of a deep sincerity into the heart of the nations. 
Talk of a millennium — the highest force now moving the nations of 
men is pure self^ and as well engraft a millennium into the minds of the 
spirits of Pandemonium as into the present race of minds. In this 
scheme we see man moving up from darkness under the action of a 
mighty law, that pervades all space, and all planets, and all beings ; and 
the one fool's trick of our race has always been — " Lord, we want 
more light " — " belief in thee has faded from our mind " — and like the 
butchering Jews, with their hands dripping in blood, we rush to the 
altar, crying, " The temple of the Lord — the temple of the Lord " ! 
" We are left to do these things." Six thousand years of blood and 
crime has hardly opened our eyes. The sun has always been over us — 
the earth, by its quickening heart, has fed us from its bosom — the air 
has cooled and warmed us as from an eternal fountain — the earth has 
yearly produced new beauties — and the gushing stream has slaked our 
thirst — the microscope has peopled with living things almost every atom 
of the globe — the telescope has swept the heavens and stars like the 
drops of the ocean are found swimming in the deep blue ether — and 
standing out under the " starry cope," let us lift our hands to God and 
pray, " Lord, we know that ' the Heavens declare thy glory, and the 
firmament showeth forth thy handy work ' — but we live in an ' age of 
progress,' and must have things clearly demonstrated ; we are philoso- 
phers and deep thinkers, and all the displays of thy goodness and mercy 
and power has failed to satisfy us that our spirits have a future — the 
old Hebrew wonders have faded from men's minds, and the wonders of 
men's bodies are small matters in the way of proof of parental goodness 
— and we ask thee, therefore, that you will condescend to show us the 
facts in the case — permit, in this ' age of progress,' that some spirit 
may ' rap three times,' if be is back here — turn over a table with Grree- 
ley on it — show us strange lights — give us fits of various kinds — let us 
talk in Mormon tongues — permit Daniel to write in Yankee-Hebrew — 
Swedenborg to make a shingle-machine for Bro. Tiffany — tell Bro. 
Capron how many ' shells he has in his.hands ' — let Franklin direct the 
battery — ' Hog-Devil ' pump and throw corn and pumpkins — and then 
permit all manner of blunders to be perpetrated : write out ' gammon ' 
for Bro. Williams, and then we will believe in thy name, and that we 
are to live hereafter — and Bro. Brittan, Courtney, Capron, Buchanan, 
TiSuny, Davis, and Bichmond, will show themselves on the Lord's 

side. Amen " ! ! ^ 

i See Appendix, Note L 
17 



258 A DISCUSSION. 

It is hard work to keep sober, even in meeting time. " What shall 
we do with our hands .?" 

" 'T is distance lends enchantment to the view." 

On the above conditions do we propose to come into the " kingdom 
come," or else " take an erratic plunge outside of the fixed laws of the 
Universe." Spirits are still bodies lighter than any body recognized by 
weight among us. How much tvill-force is requifcite to hold them down } 
Show us the figures — call up La Place, Newton, Franklin, Swedenborg, 
Daniel, and Euclid, and let us have it solved. We can not be denied. 

Now then, we must commence giving facts to a " wicked and adulter- 
ous generation that seek for a sign " 

Your first fact, signed by Profv Weill;-, and pronounced by him and 
Prof. Mapes to be beyond the power of electricity, is made up of two 
classes of phenomena. The first is the movement of a table, apparently 
by a simple force without intelligence. This force was distinctly con- 
nected with all the members of the circle present. When all their 
hands were on the table — in two instances at least — the table rose from 
the floor and floated in the air. Once it rose when no person was near 
it. Why did you omit the important fad above stated — thus cutting 
in two the whole aff"air and giving an isolated part } Is that the way 
to reach the truth .' The table was attracted by the hands of the cir- 
cle — their nerve aura beincr transmitted to it — the table becoming neg- 
atively charged while they were positive. The phenomenon of the pith- 
balls under electric action completely refute the opinions of Profs. 
Wells and Mapes. The subsequent occurrence may have been con- 
nected by a mental impulse. The second class of facts in the case — 
shocks and vibrations — are clearly electrical. 

See the account of" Moodus noises," in East Haddam, Connecticut 
— (Hist. Collec. p. 526.) These sounds, says the writer, vary from 
the " roar of cannon to the crack of a pistol ;" " the concussions of the 
■earth are as much varied as those in the air." " The shock they give 
to a dwelling-house resembles the falling of logs on the floor. Stones 
were thrown from their beds by these currents. " Those concussions 
you speak of were evidently connected with the electric state oi the 
company present. The electric knowledge of Prof. W. is sadly at 
fault The " Moodus noises " disappeared after the earthquake of 181 1 . 

Your case from the Hartford Times is but a part of the whole facts 
occurred — and as it stands is only one case of many similar, of persons 
rising in the air, or in water. To refer these facts to minds in the 
body ^ seems to you like trifling with the whole subject,' and in the 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 259 

fore part of your letter you hotly contend that the mind in a " spirit- 
body " may hold itself near the earth — implying a will-force of many 
tuns — and now you object to my making Mr. Hume fly by embodied 
mind applied to the nerve aura of his body. Your readers must plainly 
see that you are the one that places the human mind below the power 
of eagles and reptiles. How did Cotton Mather's witches fly } You 
assume that spirits are back here — that they make Mr. Hume fly, that 
they " decompose the watery vapor," and your whole yarn is one 
grand assumption, and that assiimption rests on another, that " physical 
science " don't admit these facts within her pale. 

The sun once used to be seen moving around our earth ; it once stood 
still ; stopped a whole day in Gribeon for some poor devils to get through 
hidchering. The savans once choked an old man till he swore the earth 
did not move. In " six days " the Lord made the earth — the " sun to 
rule the day and the moon the flight.''' A whole " magazine of curses " 
was poured on the head that doubted these palpable facts. Peter's 
walk, Philip's ride, Mrs. Hauf's floating on water, St. Theresa''s flight, 
and all similar facts are referable to the same law you admit. The 
celebrated Hopkins, the witch-finder, who brought many a poor wretch 
to the rack and the halter, found many who floated on water — it was a 
standing test — and he was finally seized by a mob and flung into a pond, 
and he, too, actually floated on the water. The Jerkers in this State, 
in Kentucky, and in Tennessee, when dashed on the ground, would 
"bound like a ball." If the witches flev/ and swam by Beelzebub, by 
whom do Grordon, and Hume, and St. Philip, and St. Peter fly and 
float .? Tell me. 

Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Thomas Brown, both prodigies of learning and 
integrity, doomed to death numbers of poor old women, on the naked 
assumption that Old Cloots, in his wanderings " up and down the earth," 
entered the bodies of people and enabled them to bewitch people. 
Baxter preached at these solemn trials ; Milton lived in these very 
times, and wrote " Paradise Lost," and sold the copy right for a few 
paltry pounds, to buy bread ! We have, to-day, a no less astounding 
mirade^ of an advocate of this spirit-theory writing the " iVIacrocosm " — 
a work worthy of the head of a Herschell and the heart of a Bourda- 
leau. Bro. Fishbough has made one bold step toward emancipation ; 
he thinks the spirits are great fools. Prof. Buchanan, in many re- 
spects a superior mind, can not see the scope of his doctrine of "spec- 
tral illusion." My own deep convictions are, that none of you see 
clearly the logical application of the principle."^ you t; ach.J 
J See Appeiulix, Sote J. 



260 A DISCUSSION. 

Your case, reported by Dr. Hallock, seems to be governed by men- 
tal impressions. Have you never seen experiments with electric rings c 
while the current is on they adhere, as did the glass and pencil to the 
smooth surface of a mahogany table. They were all rendered magnets 
by the will-force controlling the nerve aura. They were detached as 
you requested, controled hy your mind. Grlass is known to conduct the 
nerve aura of the human body, and was held by attraction to the table. 
To my mind it is perfectly plain. In biologizing, the smallest boy, by 
a wordy may hold ten men to their seats, when magnetically impressed, 
exerting no conscious power at all — and so of the table ; it was a mag- 
net, and responded to your request. 

You claim that no man on earth can produce such results, while they 
are almost daily produced by men in your region. Such phenomena no 
more, indicate a " foreign intelligence " than they indicate the table to 
be bewitched or possessed of the Devil or Mother Kimble's puppies. 
Must the invisible G-od stoop to authorize such feats to convince men oi 
their immortality } 

Your facts, at Anson Atwood's, is plainly the work of the mind of the 
medium and Miss Mallory ; the instrument moved and looked like a 
snake — just as suggested. The phenomenon may have been wholly 
mental, or the impulse in the mind may have been transmitted to the 
instrument. 

Luther declares that when the Devil used to visit him in the night 
and discuss the ■M;«/e?'-question, " he sjioke in a clear, shrill voice,^'' and 
excelled in " sharp rejoinders." A mental voice. 

St. Dunstan, a renowned English Bishop, used to be tormented by 
Cloots ; he came to his cell, poked his head into his cell, he took him 
by the " nose with hot tongs, ^^ and he " helloived " so that ail heard him 
for miles aroimd. In a famous fight with other Eishops, when the 
question was carried in his favor, and an attempt was made to recon- 
sider, a tvooden cross spoke aiulibly, so that all heard it, " You have voted 
right once." The above was in arpeggio style I am certain. 

In Granby, Conn., near a hill that had been separated by a shock, 
an old house was haunted. The noises resembled the " crying of a 
child," and also other noises. Two young men slept in the house ; a 
"gust of wind came in at the window, the chairs were thrown around, 
shovel and tongues rattled about, although none were in the house. The 
wind seemed to go down the ash-hole." This is plainly reflected sound, 
wholly mental. 

Cornelius Agrippa, a great wonder in the days of Luther. At the 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 261 

court of John George of Saxony, the Earl of Surrey and Erasmus 
greatly desired him to bring up Tully and let him pronounce the oration 
for Roscius. The company was marshaled, impressed, and at the com- 
mand of Agrippa, TuUy appeared, pronounced the whole, oration with 
such force and geshtre that the audience declared Roscius innocent. — 
(Groodwin's Necromancers.) Here the sound is transferred to the 
specler — the scene itself was wholly menial. Luther and Melanctbon both 
wrote of this man. This fact shows that at that time a whole audience 
could be biologized, and made to see and hear mental specters. 

Thomas Britton, of England, famous as a dealer in coal, for music 
and chemistry, held at his house musical concerts. Honeyman a ven- 
triloquist was introduced through mischief, and " announced, without 
moving his lips, as from afar, the death of Britton in two hours, unless 
he kneeled and said the Lord's prayer." He did so, but it did not 
save him. The idea so terrified him that he actually died in a few 
days. He was a Roscicrucian, and left a valuable library on magic and 
music. This is actual sound reflected by a mental movement to a dis- 
tant point. 

I hope my friend will keep cool, and not let these sounds get too 
deep hold of him. I should be quite unwilling to have you killed by an 
idea, as was poor Thomas. You are of more value to me than a " harp 
of many strings." Yours truly, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 



BRITTAU AND KICHMOKD'S DISCUSSION. 

NUMBER SEVEN. 

MYSTERIOUS MOVEMENTS OF PONDERABLE BODIES. 

My Dear Sir : I can not dismiss tliis phase of the Manifestations 
until I redeem the promise contained in mj eighth letter of the first 
series. It will be remembered that you introduced a disconnected and 
confused statement of the remarkable phenomena, witnessed in Austin- 
burgh, Marlborough, and elsewhere in Ohio, and which I declined to 
consider at length for the want of a more complete and authentic ac- 
count. Such a narrative yoio did not incline to publish, because, it 
may be, a full and lucid statement, however important to a right appre- 
hension of the nature and phenomenal aspects of the whole matter, could 
not possibly subserve your object in this discussion. But L. M. Austin, 
Esq., and other reliable witnesses, have voluntarily furnished me just 
such an account of the occurrences referred to as my present purpose 
and the interests of the truth demand. I am happy to say that the 
facts are of such a nature as to preclude the necessity for any extended 
observations of my own ; for, surely, no candid and intelligent man (my 
correspondent, having a case to make out, is cordially excepted) will 
be disposed to ascribe such startling, powerful, complicated and intelli- 
gent phenomena to any earthly cause. It is deemed unwise to impair 
the force of the facts, by withholding any portion of the statement, and 
accordingly I submit it entire. 

A CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA 
WITNESSED IN ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO. 

AustiNBURGH, February 4, 1853. 
S. B. Brittan : Dear Sir: In your favor of the 19th inst., you 
request me to communicate an authentic account of certain remarkable 
phenomena, to which I referred in a former letter, and also to state my 
relations to the parties, and what were my opportunities for making 
observations. I do not feel at liberty to disclose the name of the lady 
spoken of, without her consent ; nor can I obtain that consent for the 
present, for the reason that she is in a distant State, and I am unac- 
quainted with her address. But I learn from a letter lately received 
fi-om a gentlemen now in the City of Washington, that from certain 



A DISCUSSION. 263 

statements of Dr. Richmond in one of Lis letters published in the Spirit- 
ual Telegraph, referring to the transactions I am about to relate, infer- 
ences are drawn, unfavorable to the ladj's reputation for sincerity and 
truth. I am sure that Dr. Richmond never intended to use language 
liable to such a construction ; but nevertheless I deem it due to the lady 
to make a brief statement relating to her personally. 

During the fall of 1850, she was thrown into a state of the deepest 
distress, by the news of the death of her husband, which occurred on 
his outward passage to San Francisco. His death on ship-board, far 
from family and friends, with no relative near to soothe his sufferings in 
the hour of sickness and dissolution, was to her a trial of no ordinary 
magnitude. She was for a long time overwhelmed with a mental agony 
that seemed to threaten her very existence ; and when at length the 
first intensity of her grief was past, and she had fixed upon her plans for 
the future welfare of herself and two little children, she was at the 
greatest possible remove from the state of mind, which would admit of 
her being a party to intrigue or deception. Possessing a fine and cul- 
tivated intellect, her nature ardent and impulsive, yet noble and gener- 
ous, no one who knows her would for a moment suspect her of deception 
and trickery under any circumstances whatever. I make this statement 
to show, that both the character of the lady, and the peculiar circum- 
stances which surrounded her, preclude the supposition of any voluntary 
deception, on her part, in the matter referred to by Dr. Richmond. 

It was in the summer of 1851, while on a visit to the f\imily of S. M. 
Cowles, that her history as a " medium " commenced. Soon after her 
arrival at Mr. Cowles', the sounds began to be heard which were soon 
recognized as the " raps." She had never before heard them, and what 
she had learned of the " manifestations " in other places had not im- 
pressed her mind in favor of the idea of their spiritual origin. It was 
consequently a very great annoyance to her that, wherever she might be 
or whatever she were doing, the sounds were around her in all direc- 
tions. Of course the family and friends were curious to get communi- 
cations, and she in some instances consented to gratify their wishes. 
These messages were uniformly obtained by means of the sounds and 
alphabet. One of the family kindly invited me to call, and judge for 
myself what these strange things might mean. My mind had been so 
strongly impressed with what I conceived to be the ridiculous absurdity 
of the idea, that disembodied spirits produced these phenomena, that I 
had not until a short time befoi'e even read an article on the subject.. 
But at that time my cui-iosity was excited, and I was glad of an oppor- 



264 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND 

tunity to see and judge for mvself. Ou my way to Mr. Cowles\ T men- 
tally arranged my test questions, and when seated with the medium at 
a table, awaiting the pleasure of the spirits, my mind was fully preoc- 
cupied with the impression, that the celestial visitor about to favor me 
would claim to be the spirit of my father. In a few minutes the raps 
came. But the spirit responded not to the name of father or mother. 
It professed to be the spirit of a child. At this moment, the sounds 
were heard at three distinct points on the table simultaneously. The 
medium observed : " Here are several spirits ; have you lost more than 
one child ?" " I have lost three children," I replied. After this many 
questions were put and responded to, the spirits rapping together in 
each instance. In reply to such questions as, " Do you know each 
other in the Spirit-world ? Are you together there .'"' they responded 
in the most animated manner, producing a perfect concert of tiny raps. 
And finally they united in rapping out the following: " Vf e are all 
happy together." The age of the children, at the time of their death, 
varied from two to four years. Subsequently the following message 
was obtained : " Earth was pleasant and we were happy; Heaven is 
beautiful and we are so full of joy ;" and this from the spirit of the one 
who died at the age of four years — " Father, I was an undeveloped 
child, when I seemed to leave you ; but I have progressed to a state 
more glorious than manhood's wisdom." This was my first experience 
in the investigation of spiritual phenomena. Everything I had wit- 
nessed was unexpected and surprising. I had not the remotest idea 
that I was to hold converse with the spirits of my children ; the medium 
had no knowledge of my havmg lost but one child, so that her knowl- 
edge of my family history could not have enabled her, had she been so 
disposed, to arrange this scene for my amusement. 

What I have above related was all that I personally witnessed of the 
manifestations, during her visit at that time. She went from Austin- 
burg to Marlborough for the purpose of attending a course of lectures 
on anatomy. It was at that place that the extraordinary phenomena 
commenced, to which Dr. R. so frequently refers. I have before me 
several letters from Dr. Whiting, of Canton, which giye the details of 
several of the strange occurrences, personally witnessed by himself, or 
vouched for by the most unimpeachable witnesses. I have written to 
him, requesting a full statement of what transpired at Marlborough, 
duly authenticated. Suffice it to say, for the present, that mysterious 
works were constantly going on in the room occupied by H, (by which 
initial letter of her name I will hereafter distinguish her,) and a fellow ~ 



A DISCUSSION. 2C5 

student, principally during the night, hut not unfrequently during the 
day. The bones, with which demonstrations in anatomy were made, 
were frequently moving about the room, without the agency of any vis- 
ible appliance ; and particularly the cranium ivas always looking her in 
the face, place it in whatever position she would. At night were heard 
almost continually sounds as of objects thrown in all directions and 
striking at various points upon the wall, the table, chairs, bed, &c. 
This annoyance was so constant as to deprive them of sleep, and it kept 
them in a state of terrible fear and apprehension. At length, harrassed 
and worn out with this dreadful persecution of " Ann Merrick," as the 
spirit called itself, she left Marlborough, and went to Dr. Whiting's. 
Thither the spirit followed her, and she was almost driven to despair, 
when one night, a few days after her arrival at Canton, she felt a calm 
and soothing influence, gently passing over her mind, inspiring her with 
the confident hope, that the hour of her deliverance was at hand. The 
next morning, in presence of Dr. and Mrs. Whiting, her hand was invol- 
untarily moved, (for the first time,) and the following was written : 

" Frank," (the name of her deceased husband) " I have tried to communicate 
several times ; but, dearest, you did not heed me. I would have saved you from 
the annoyance vrould you have permitted. Never allow yourself to be alarmed 
by her raps. Never converse with or about her. Call for me; I am still your 
protector, dear H., though a vail is between us. She is attracted by no affinity 
of mind, but your physical condition admits of her annoying. Call for higher 

.spirits." " Be calm, dear wife ; do not weep; sadness is foreign to your 

nature. Be cheerful, be happy, be gay. It causes me to feel sad — grief in "you 
— for although Earth's troubles are no more, our spiritual organizations are such 
that we can and do sympathize with the loved ones, we seem to have left. Be 
cheerful ; it is better for you, for our little ones, and better for me to see you as 
you were, when I was with you in life." 

The underscoring is copied from the original. 

" Ann " repeatedly appeared after this, but a mental call for Frank 
would at once banish her. H. experienced not the slightest annoyance 
from that source, so long as she fulfilled the conditions on which Frank 
had promised his protection. 

From Canton H. returned to her friends in Austinburgh, on the 11th 
of October, 1851 ; Mr. Cowles and his family wei-e of course intensely 
interested to be informed more particularly than they had before been, 
respecting the phenomena at Marlborough. In the course of the eve- 
ning, while she was conversing with her friends on the subject of her 
painful experience at that place, suddenly those loud raps were heard, 
which indicated the presence of "Ann Merrick." Mr. Cowles, wishing 



266 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

to see something of her power, gave her a cordial welcome, to which she 
responded in loud raps. By way of giving them a taste of her quality, 
she performed some of her more gentle antics, such as knocking about 
the chairs, tables, &c. During the whole of the next day, (Sunday,) 
and the succeeding night, " Ann " was perfectly quiet. Several inter- 
esting communications purporting to come from deceased friends of the 
family, were received through the medium. In the evening, a circle 
meeting of investigators of the spiritual phenomena was held at Mr. 
Cowles ; H., not choosing to sit with the circle, was in another room, 
conversing with some friends who had called to see her, when a sudden 
rapping on her knuckles intimated to her, that a spirit wished to com- 
municate. Apologizing to her friends for a momenfs absence, she 
retired to another room, and seated herself at a table with pencil and 
paper before her. Her hand was guided to write the message given 
below. It was directed to the circle, and was almost a/ac simile of the 
author's hand-writing when in life. I have carefully compared it with 
a medical bill in my possession, written by Dr. Wadsworth, while he was 
our family physician. The underscoring is precisely as in the original 
document. 

" Dear Friends : Gladly, most gladly, would I remove the vail from your eyes, 
that now prevents your gaze from resting upoa the clouds of celestial visitants, 
that throng around jou. Your little harmonious efforts to establish an electric 
chain between the mortal and immortal, have attracted from spheres most glo- 
rious, those who are sympathizing in your efforts, and who would, had Infinite 
Wisdom decreed it thus, quickly endow each and every one of you with that 
power, which, through unseen agencies, gives you glimpses, /afwi^ ones though 
they be, of those seas of glory, in whose waves of bliss the freed spirit is permit- 
ted, through the matchless love and mercy of Jehovah, to bathe throughout end- 
less eternity. You feel these things a mystery. A mystery, for a while, they 
must remain. Slowly, but surely, the vail of the temple is being, rent ; the vision 
of mankind will ere long be purified, and these mysteries become so plain that 
' the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err.' T. H. Wadsworth." 

About eight o'clock of Monday evening, October 13th, H. had occa- 
sion to go to one of the chambers, for the purpose of giving drink to 
one of her children. The hall stair-carpet had been taken up, and the 
carpet-rods were placed at the head of the stairs. On her way up stairs, 
with a basin of water in one hand and a lighted candle in the other, 
about half i\iQ rods suddenly started from their place, and flew past her, 
knocking the basin and light from her hands, but not touching her. On 
hearing the noise, the family hastened to the seen of tumult, and found 
the rods scattered on the floor below. They were gathered together 
and replaced in their former position. At the usual hour of retiring. 



A DISCUSSION. 267 

H., Miss Rhoda Snow, and Miss Martha Cowles went to the same apart- 
ment to pass the night. A door at the east end of this chamber opens 
into the hall chamber, and at the opposite end another opens into a 
hmiber-room, in which were deposited about fifty muskets, with bayo- 
nets, a corresponding number of cartridge-boxes and belts, were sus- 
pended on nails, driven into the plate above. One of the lady's chil- 
dren was sleeping in that room, but it had no other occupant. The bed, 
in which the child was sleeping, was in a direct line between the mus- 
kets and the bed in the adjoining chamber, which H. occupied that 
night. The distance between H.'s bed and the muskets was about 
twenty -five feet. Another bed, in the same room, stood near the door 
opening into the lumber-room. After extinguishing the light, the 
ladies conversed together about ten minutes, during which time not the 
slightest noise was heard, except the sound of their voices, when sud- 
denly the carpet-rods, as they supposed, fell clattering on the floor. In 
rapid succession various sounds were heard, produced by the falling of 
different objects upon the floor. These sounds were succeeded by a 
tremendous crash, which attracted every member of the household to 
the spot. They came in precipitate haste with lights, when a scene of 
confusion, worthy of Bedlam ten times over, was revealed. Piled in- 
discriminately upon the floor, were four of the cartridge-boxes and belts, 
the carpet-rods, candlesticks, combs, hair-brushes, stockings, shoes, 
spool-stand, and almost every other movable object in the room. One 
of the muskets, with the bayonet fixed, was found thrown completely 
under H.'s bed, having passed in its way thither, through nearly the 
whole extent of both rooms. Tht raimner toas drawn from the musket, 
and was found in the pile. The muskets had not been used for about 
two years, and had become much rusted, so that the rammer could not 
have been removed from the musket, but by the exertion of considera- 
ble force. 

On Wednesday evening, October 15th, the following phenomena oc- 
curred, in presence of Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Cowles, Miss Martha Cowles, 
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Snow, myself, and some other persons. This was 
the first opportunity I had of witnessing the prowess of Mistress Ann, 
and the occurrences of the eveniog are deeply impressed upon my mem- 
ory. We were seated around a large, heavy cherry table, when Ann 
announced her presence by the most emphatic raps, as loud as the sound 
that would be produced by a smart blow upon the table with a pen-knife 
handle. She at once directed the lights to be extinguished. But we 
gave her ghostship to understand that we were utterly opposed to tha^t 



268 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

proceeding. Whatever were to be her performances, we wanted to see, 
as well as hear. She finally consented to have the lights placed in an 
adjoining bed-room and the door connecting with it left open. Thus we 
had light sufficient to see distinctly whatever movements might be pro- 
duced. In the first place, she was requested to move the table. H. sat 
with her fingers resting lightly upon it ; no other person touched it. In 
a few seconds, it began to rock upon its legs sideways, back and forth — 
at first slowly, then more rapidly, until it was overturned. Mr. Cowles 
then replaced the table upon its legs, and seating himself upon it chal- 
lenged Ann to overturn it again. Instantly it began rocking as before ; 
Mr. Cowles was soon thrown upon the floor, and the table was over- 
turned, falling upon his head and shoulders. It was replaced and again 
he mounted it. Then it was rocked end-wise, and again was Mr. Cowles 
thrown upon the floor, and the table overturned upon him. Again he 
seated himself upon it. " Now, Ann," said he, " do your worst." In- 
stantly a chair flew from the side of the room, and struck him violently 
across his back. By this time he was perfectly satisfied. 

During these occurrences, another table in the room was twice tipped 
up to an angle of about forty-five degrees, and books and various other 
articles upon it were scattered upon the floor ; a heavy bureau in the bed- 
room was overturned, falling upon the end of a lounge near it ; hats, 
caps, and clothing of various kinds, hanging upon nails in the bed-room, 
left their places like "things of life," &c., &c. 

Order at length being restored out of this chaos, Ann was requested 
to make the cherry table beat time to music. Mr. Snow then played 
some very lively music on a violin, for perhaps ten minutes. The table 
was raised about four inches from the floor, and first one leg struck it, 
then another, and so on, in regular succession, the strokes keeping exact 
time with the music, and varying, as the musician played fast or slow. 
After this, in reply to questions, she stated that she was born in Ire- 
land, left that Island about seventeen years ago, spent the last three 
years of her life at Cincinnati, died in the hospital, and followed her 
body to Marlborough, to which place it was conveyed for dissection. 
She refused to be quiet through the night, and said that she should 
bestow her particular attentions upon Messrs. Cowles and Snow, alleg- 
ing that they were kindred spirits of hers. She was asked what she in- 
tended to do to them, and her response was, " Gruess : ha ! ha ! he ! he !" 

[This circumstance occurred at a later hour of the night. H. and Mrs. 
Snow were the witnesses. I had written the account of this night's events, 
before I consulted Mr. and Mrs. Snow, according to Mr. Cowles' recoUec- 



A DISCUSSION. 269 

tion. They also went into the lumber room, and saw the cartridge-boxes 
swinging on the nails by which they were suspended. Also the guns and 
swords were vibrating so as to produce a clicking sort of sound.] 

Mr. and Mrs. Snow remained at Mr Cowles' through the night. 
Before retiring to her sleeping apartment, H., accompanied by IMrs. 
Snow, went into the parlor-chamber, when, amid a general movement 
of objects in the room, a wash-stand, with wash-bowl and pitcher stand- 
ing upon it, started from the side of the room, about four feet ; bvt 
though the motion was quick as thought almost, yet the hoiol and jpitcher 
were not displaced from the stand. The arrangements for the night de- 
termined upon, the family retired, Messrs. Cowles and Snow occupy- 
ing one of iho, beds, and H. and Mrs Snow the other, in the chamber 
before described. 

[Mr. S. says that, as soon as the light was put out, the candle, candle- 
stick, and then a box of matches, were placed in his hands by the in- 
visible agent. They were left, by H.'s request, on the stand near her 
bed, so that she could strike a light at pleasure. Mr.S. wished to put 
the candle out of H.'s reach, so that Ann's proceedings might not be 
interrupted. In other respects the statement is correct as first written.] 

As soon as the light was extinguished, candle and candlestick were 
discharged at Mr. Snow, just brushing his hair in their passage without 
hitting his face. In quick succession, shoes, hair-brushes, combs, &c., 
followed, in every instance just touching their hair, without coming in 
contact with their heads. The case was different, when pillows, stock- 
ings, and like articles were used as missiles. These were dashed directly 
into their faces. The spirit kept these things in constant and lively 
motion for some time, and then a bright thought seemed to occur to 
her. The ladies were apparently more amused than distressed, by 
the tribulations of the gentlemen ; so Ann pulled out a quantity of 
straw from the underbed, through a very small hole in the tick, and 
used it in whipping their faces. She also jerked the pillows from under 
their heads, and pulled the under-sheet from beneath them. All this 
time there was a general movement of chairs, &c., &c. 

On Thursday, October 16th, a gentleman, the father of H., arrived, 
fuU of skepticism, and resolutely determined to put an end to the whole 
proceedings if possible. During the night, he received full and satis- 
factory proof that "Ann Merrick " was wholly indisposed to acknowledge 
his authority in the premises, and that he must submit to let her have 
her own way, nolens volens. 

On Friday evening, October 17th, a lady came to Mr. Cowles' to see 
something of the doings of the wonder-working " Ann." After H. had 



270 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

retired, her father occupyiug a bed in the same room, and the light was 
put out, very loud rapping was heard, and the lady was invited to go 
there. On her entrance, instantly something was thrown at her. She, 
at first supposing that H. was the operator, very earnestly remonstrated, 
'^ What are you striking me for, H..'"' said she. " I have not struck 
you.'" " There, you have struck me again," said the lady ; " why don't, 
H., don't." " I am not touching you," was the reply. Terribly 
frightened, the lady sprang to H.'s bed, from which she was violently 
pushed. Thus repulsed, she went to the gentlemen for protection. In 
vain. She was pelted with stockiDgs, shoes, and garments of various 
kinds, until, thoroughly convinced that " Ann " was a "hard customer,"' 
to make the best of her, she retreated to an adjoining room. Thither 
was the frightened fugitive pursued with every possible missile which the 
room afforded. At length the lady, finding that she was not hurt, be- 
came calm, and the annoyance ceased. 

Nothing more occurred worthy of note for several days. On Satur- 
day evening, October 25th, two ladies, both skeptical in relation to these 
strange phenomena, were at Mr. Cowles'. Ann accordingly felt herself 
called upon to make some demonstrations. About 7 o'clock, as one of 
the ladies was walking with H. through a lighted chamber, JMrs. 
Cowles, who was near them at the moment, saw a bed-quilt, thickly 
stuffed with cotton, leave its place and move very slowly toward the 
lady, until, passing over her head and gently brushing her cap, it sud- 
denly dropped at her feet. Various other things were operated with in 
a similar manner. Passing from the chamber, they descended the stairs, 
when the chairs in the hall moved from their places in the direction 
they were walking. Passing from the hall througii a room containing 
among other things a wood-bos, rocking-chair and table, a stick of wood 
flew from the wood-box, the rocking-chair was overturned, and the 
table moved out from the wall. Without stopping in that room, they 
passed into the dining-room, and seated themselves on a settee furnished 
with rockers. Instantly the settee was rocked with astonishing rapidity; 
no two men could, by their combined efforts, have given it so rapid a 
motion with two persons sitting on it. After the lady had escaped from 
that terrible rocking she did not, for some time, choosy to trust herself 
to anything less substantial than the solid floor. 

On Sunday evening, October 26th, H., Miss Sarah Austin, and Miss 
Martha CoM'les, retired to the same room to pass the night. Soon after 
they withdrew such a scene was enacted there as altogether transcends 
the power of description. It seemed as if Ann had obtained a strong 



A DISCUSSION. 271 

remforcement from Panderaonium itself. The father of H., who was in 
a room seperated from hers by the hall chamber, hastened below for a 
light, as he descended the stairs, a chair followed him, rocking on the 
floor and stairs as it advanced, and making a terrible racket. In the hall 
he met Mr. Cowles with a light, and they went np stairs together. On 
reaching the hall chamber, they saw in the doorway of the room the gen- 
tleman had just before left, the wash-bowl and pitcher before mentions d. 
On this occasion the stand was left undisturbed, while the bowl and 
pitcher were carefully placed in such a position, that no one could pass 
through the door in the dark without disturbing them. None but that 
person occupied the room, and no one had been in the hall chamber during 
the moment of his absence. They passed on to the room in which the 
noise was occurring. On their entrance they saw a large, heavy trunk, 
which had been closely packed, rocking endwise, back and forth, with 
such force that the whole house was shaken. The windows and doors 
rattled in their casements. Another trunk was overturned and its con- 
tents scattered on the floor. Almost every movable object in the room 
was piled up in a heap. They left a lighted candle in the room and 
retired. Instantly the candle was put out by some unseen agent, and 
then the universal motions of movables recommenced. The ladies called 
for another light, which was procured and left in their room. That also 
was extinguished in the same way, and then the entertainment was 
varied. All the sounds that had been heard were hushed, and then 
strains of exquisite harmony were heard. It seemed like instrumental 
music, and yet there was no instrument of music in the house or within 
forty rods of it. But there, in H.'s room apparently, music was heard 
by all in the house, sweeter than its auditors had ever before listened to. 
Among the pieces performed were " Home sweet home," and " Yankee 
Doodle." But the Bweetest, most touching melodies were never before 
heard by any of the persons who were permitted to listen to that mys- 
terious music. It was thus that Ann made her final adieu ; H. has 
never, so far as I know, heard aught of her since. 

After H. left Austinburgh, what purported to be spirits of her de- 
parted friends expressed an earnest desire that she should yield herself 
to their influence, to be developed as a medium for communication from 
them to the world. To this she was most determinedly opposed. Her 
plans were fixed, and she did not choose to change them. There was 
considerable mesmeric influence exercised over her by some invisible 
agency. But she succeeded in throwing it off. It was after this, in 
the town of Marlborough, that the strangest part of her experience 



272 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

occurred. She bad resumed bet studies under tbe direction of her for- 
mer instructor. I have since had a relation of the occurrences of that 
time, from H. herself. But it is a long story, and I can not trust uiy 
memory to repeat it correctly. The day before the appearance of the 
spirit which succeeded Ann Merrick, the brain bad been taken from the 
cranium of a female subject and dissected, and a portion of the muscles 
also taken up about one eye. After H. and Ker room-mate left the dis- 
secting room, one of the arms, both of which had been extended by the 
side of the body, was folded across the breast. This was done immedi- 
ately before the room was locked up for the night, and H. and her room- 
mate had no knowledge of the alteration of the position of the arm. 
That night, H. told me, she and her comp^ion were alarmed by the 
most frightful sounds. Trembling with apprehension of they knew not 
what danger, they covered their heads with the bed-clothes. At last 
H. summoned resolution to uncover her face, and there, standing by the 
bedside, was the specter all ghastly and reeking, precisely as the body 
was last seen by them on the table, with the exception that, one of the 
arms was folded across the breast. 

So tremendous were the sounds produced by this strange agency, 
that crowds of people were attracted around the house in which they 
occurred. They were more like the sound that would be made by a 
sledge-hammer wielded by a strong arm, than the ordinary raps. H. 
and her room-mate being afraid to pass the night alone, a brother of 
the latter was one night with them. His sister requested him in the 
course of the night to ascertain what it was passing over theii- heads and 
the bed. He approached their bed, and saw by the moonlight a human 
skull dancing up and down over their heads. He watched the motions 
of the skull awhile, and then attempted to remove it ; but it was only 
by the exertion of a good deal of strength and agility that he succeeded. 
But I must close tbis communication. For the convenience of nar- 
ration, I have spoken, of the agents in tbese transactions as spirits. 
Whatever the cause of these phenomena, one thing is certain: ^ there 
was no voluntary agency of living man, woman, or child, in their pro- 
duction. 

The foregoing is but an outline of some of the principal facts. Such 
as it is, I submit it for the consideration of the scientific. 

Very truly yours, L- M. Austin. 

The foregoing statement is correct, so far as we personally witnessed 
the phenomena therein related. Martha H. Cowles, 

L M. Cowles, Rachel Cowles, S- H. bNOw, 

Rhoda Snow, Sarah H. Austin, Ann J. Snow. 



A DISCUSSION. 2/3 

Mr. Austin writes with great care and candor, and his interesting nar- 
rative evinces a most conscientious regard for the truth. There is no 
perceptible effort to make a strong case, but the strict fidelity of the 
statement is manifest throughout. The facts themselves demonstrate 
their origin so clearly that no argument can make the truth more con- 
spicuous. You have yourself admitted the actual occurrence of the 
essential facts in this case, and to assume that they were produced by 
those who witnessed them, or that any mere material force, or, indeed, 
that all such forces combined are adequate to their production, is the 
most arrant mockery of all the attributes of reason. It indicates a sad 
obliquity of the rational nature to countenance such an a.-sumption for 
a moment, unless we are prepared to show why, agreeably to the hypo- 
thesis assumed, the same phenomena never transpired before in a thou- 
sand places, why they did happen then and there^ and also why they 
may not be reproduced in Austinburgh and elsewhere, especially in the 
sleeping rooms of all medical students. You will find it difiicult. I ap- 
prehend, to carry your theory and these facts along with you at the 
same time. Even poor " Ann," disorderly as she was, would be dis- 
turbed by such incongruity and antagonism. 

The reader can not but be amazed in view of the wonderful force and 
precision, with which solid and inflexible objects were hurled in all direc- 
tions, brushing the hair and clothes of the persons who witnessed the 
phenomena, without inflicting the slightest injury on any one, while such 
objects as could not wound or occasion pain, were thrown directly into 
their faces. In the midst of the greatest apparent confusion an uner- 
ring precision, in the application of the force to the object, seems to have 
been invariably displayed. No mere natural or human agency could 
display such a reckless power, and such consummate caution. However 
rude and violent the exhibitions of " Ann Merrick " may appear to the 
careless observer, there is a dramatic interest in her wildest moods, 
while we discover no evidence of a malicious design. Moreover there 
may be a beautiful significance in that last performance. It may not 
be unreasonable to indulge the thought that, those weird melodies were 
but the prelude to a more harmonious life which was then opening to her 
troubled spirit in a higher sphere. S. B. BRIT TAN. 

19 



REPLY TO S. B. BRITTAN 

arUMBER SEVEN. 

Dear Sir: Your (L. M. Austin's) seventh letter is received. You 
open by alleging that I had " introduced a disconnected and confused 
statement of the phenomena in Austinburgh." " A full and lucid 
statement v?ould not subserve my objects in the discussion." "L. M. 
Austin and other reliable witnesses have furnished you with just such 
an account." This is an open attack on my veracity, in facts. Let 
facts reply to it. 

The occurrences at Mr. Lysander Cowles' were public property^ from 
the first — and as many versions of them could be found, as persons to 
relate them. Few minds can narrate such fact alike. My information 
was derived from Miss Martha Cowles and Mrs. Rachel Cowles, resid- 
ing in the house where the occurrences were witnessed. I sought and 
heard the story as many as four or five difi"erent times. Miss Martha 
being the best and most connected narrator — having a better memory — 
each time some new fact, before forgotten, would come out, and some 
previous fact mentioned be dropped. Their order I never could under- 
stand. This frequent narration was had with a view to publish the 
facts. The result of my observations were embodied in my first letter 
to the Tribune^ and in reply to Mr. E. W. Capron. landed facts sub- 
sequently obtained through L. M. Austin, and the father of the medi- 
um, " H.", and published in the Tribune^ with a reply by Mr. Orton, 
I am told — (Will some one forward me that paper, if they have it ; I 
have never seen it) — and by referring to those two letters, and the 
facts subscribed to in this correspondence, you will find quite, a dif- 
ference. 

In the reply to Capron I narrated almost verbatim from her father's 
statements, and, it now appears, that he had heard the story in a way 
that combined a part of the facts in Austinburgh with those of Marl- 
borough. The piling up a host of things in the middle of the room at 
A., I had received as occurring at M. Myself and Miss Martha Cowles 
have always contended strongly that the ichole facts should be carefully 
,put together and given to the public, with those at Marlborough ; oth- 
.ers, and the medium in particular, wholly objected to any public con- 



A DISCUSSION. 275 

nection with it, and was greatly ofFonded with me for what I did pub- 
lish, and uttei-ly refused me any narration of the facts, at Marlborough, 
while the Spiritualists were using these facts, by letter and word, to 
stay up their positions. "Ann," at first, " had risen from the dead," 
actually appeared to " H", with clotted hair, bloody bones, doleful 
sighs, horrid groans, grave-yard yells, and ghastly grin — breathing her 
sepulchral tones into the ear of affrighted women. When I inquired if 
the " door was locked " between rooms, no body knew or had thought 
of it. It was locked and had not been stirred, and in the morning 
"Ann," the sinner, was found on the board, stark and stiff, " alone in 
her glory," as though she had not " riz " during the night and fright- 
ened the ladies. Directly it was admitted that it was not " Ann " in 
thefiesh^ but an " assumed appearance," to cheat and frighten. The 
story, when first told, beat Lazarus all to fits — and in my letter to E. 
W. Capron I have it that she appeared., in whole and in part, " three 
times " to " H." I had so heard it. 

On one of these occasions, it was said, " H." struck her ghostship 
with a stick, (good enough for her,) and " H." was thrown by some- 
thing nearly across the room ; the bed moved six feet, and the furni- 
ture all piled up in the center of the room. 

Mr. L. M. Austin and myself differ only in one or two matters. He 
has added some that I had never heard ; I have given some that he 
don't mention. I understood the skull to be " moving round ;" he 
says it was "moving up and down." The swinging of the cartridge- 
boxes and vibrating of the guns and swords, so as to produce a clicking, 
I don't remember ever having heard. The fiddling and singing I heard 
mentioned, but not as Mr. A. writes. The glass tumbler and watch 
not being disturbed, and the bottle of cologne, in the bandbox, upset 
after its removal, he omits. He makes the singing the last of "Ann's " 
troubling " H." As I understood it from Miss Martha Cowles, it was 
at the " boiling of the bones," in Mjirlborough, that "Ann " made her 
grand "sledge-hammer " demonstration. We have probably now the 
main facts — and in my account to you I refused names — when you de- 
manded names and all. I referred you to a number of persons for facts 
— you have them from them as I desired you should from the first. 
That "H." will thank neither me nor Mr. Austin, is certain. 

A more full account of the Marlborough transactions is desirable. I 
could never satisfy myself what were the facts at M., and Mr. L. M. A. 
corrects his own account once or twice from others. He is universally 
refrarded as a man of veracity. L. M. Covcl. s, Ivjifhel Cowles, and 



276 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

Miss Martha Cowles, are veracious- — and state what they believe to be 
facts — the others I do not know. My intercourse in the family has 
been intimate — having attended the " Captain " in two severe fits of 
sickness — and always found all the family sincere and confiding in all 
things. Your attempt to charge me with want of veracity was unfor- 
tunate ; no antagonism exists between me and the family of Mr. Austin. 
Such facts as I could gather, I furnished, and not one statement has 
been invalidated, brief and condensed as was the sketch that I gave to 
the Irihme and yourself. 

Now we turn to Mr. Austin's letter. Your letter from a gentleman 
in Washington City needs no reply. My language is on record — point 
it out ; and when it bears any construction unfavorable to the " truth or 
veracity " of " H.", I will afi&rm or deny it. Will you, or your Wash- 
ington correspondent, or Mr. Brittan, point to the language ? — it is very 
easy. Frankness, gentlemen, is the manly way of doing things. '' H." 
I know o\Ay by a slight acquaintance ; whether she is a saint or sinner, 
I know not. I do know that she has a good mind, and a decidedly well 
molded and symmetrical frame, keen eye, and pleasing face. My fight 
is not with " flesh and blood." When she returned from Ma.rlborough, 
I carried a load of ladies six miles to hear her introductory lecture, and 
soon the gossips in the town started a story that the "spirits wrote it." 
This looked like a spiritual splurge^ and was an outrage on her intelli- 
gence — for all that the " spirits " have written in three years, hoihd 
down, would not make a good shadow to her well-written initroductory 
lecture on Anatomy and Physiology. She positively assured me that 
she had authorized no such statement. 

We will now proceed to dissect your facts. And first, on what 
grounds do you conclude that the whole array of wonders authorizes a 
belief in spirit agency .'' — you offer no reason, and none can be assigned 
— though you assume that the " facts themselves demonstrate their 
origin." The whole facts are clearly connected with "H.", and the 
intelligence indicated, only points to her mind. If that spirit carried 
out that gun with hands, then she could do all the other acts without 
" aid or comfort," and no act is attested unconnected with the presence 
of'H." In fact, all that occurred is referred to her, distinctly and 
definitely. To conclude, from this fact, that they were supernatural in 
cause, is wholly unphilosophical 

There is a statement on record, that when the flood had drowned the 
earth, and " the clouds broke from the face of heaven, and sunlight 
streamed upon the shoreless sea," that God placed a how in the cloud 



A DISCUSSION. 277 

as a sign tbat the earth should not again be destroyed by water. Re- 
cently I spent a day loading wood in the forest — sleet had covered 
every tree — not a twig could be seen but what sported a crown more 
brilliant than a fairy queen's — sunlight painted each ice-crowned twig 
with colors of gold and emerald, purple and green — the entire forest 
was crowned with light enchanted jewels — a scene more gorgeous than 
all the lilies of the field arrayed in their glory — and now suppose I 
should argue to you that Grod painted those ice-gems on the tree-tops, 
as a testimony that we should have no more sleet-rains in Ohio. It 
would do, if men were ignorant. Your naked assumption that spirits 
do all these things, will do with men that don't reason. The facts in 
Mr. Austin's letter involves physical force, intelligence, and sounds. 
Force is matter in motion. Intelligent force involves mind — sound is 
air in motion, is force in fact. 

Take a Tpiece of bj'own paper, heat it on the stove, rub it between 
your hands, place it against the wall, it will adhere to the wall for some 
time, it will adhere to either hand also. The relation of this little ex- 
periment to the hands applied to the tables and stands and the attrac- 
tion that follows is self-evident. In the Ohio State Journal, I find this 
fact attested by Jacob Shaifer and eight others, Reynoldsburg, Ohio : 

On Friday evening, the 4th instant, a number of persons met at the office of 
J. B. West, Esq., among whom were four mediums. A stand, such as is used for 
ordinary purposes in a house, being four square, with four feet, was placed in 
the center of the room, and the mediums placed themselves around it, with their 
hands on the top of the stand, and soon they notified the assembly that the spir- 
its were waiting the interrogatories of persons wishing to converse ; and upon 
questions being asked, the answers were, as usual, given in the affirmative, by 
the stand raising toward the strongest medium. In order to ascertain what the 
cause of these communications were, 1 caused the feet of the stand to be placed 
upon flat pieces of cork, which is a non-conductor of electricity, and on the top 
of the stand I placed six flat pieces of cork, on top of which I placed two lights of 
common window glass (another nou-conductor). After having done this, the 
mediums placed their hands on the glass, and soon informed us that the spirits 
were again in waiting. I then caused the hands of the mediums to be wrapped 
in silk, the better to destroy the communication between the mediums and the 
stand. I then took a piece of copper wire, the one end of which was fastened to 
a piece of cork, and wrapped it around the wrists of each of the mediums, and 
continued from one to the other, and from the last one a piece of wrapped copper 
wire, connecting with the aforenamed copper wire, and extending from the me- 
diums out at the window, the end of which was fastened around a piece of iron 
and placed below the surface of the earth. As soon as this was all done, the 
mediums could no longer cause the stand to raise, nor could answers be procured 

from the Spirits to questions asked, although several trials were made 

The fact of the escape of the electricity along the wires was proven by the con- 



278 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

tinned trembling of the wires as it seemed to pass away, resembling the beating 
of the pulse. 

Now will Prof. Wells and Mapes assert that we have not here a tan- 
gible evidence of electric action. Take the facts at Lysander Cowles : 
The carpet-rods came down stairs as she approached — attraction only. 
The chair followed Dr. Cowles to the hall, rocking — attraction only 
The bowl and pitcher moved to the door as he passed out — attraction 
only, or repulsion from " H." toward her father. He seems to have 
been frightened and a medium at the time. The trunk moved up and 
down — it was filled with the medium's clothes, and the force seemed to 
act from end to end — positive and negative. Mr. Cowles was thrown 
from the table as requested — the intelligence is plainly referable to the 
medium, as are the physical facts. At various times the clothes on 
the wall, and everything about the room, was in motion — the " muskets 
and swords click " and move cartridge-boxes. The movement here 
of a fluid of wind, so to speak, is clear. The medium passes through a 
room — a stick of wood is attracted from the bos — the chairs turned 
over, and the table moves into the line of movement — attraction and 
vacuum. A host of things are piled up in a heap in the room, " cart- 
ridge-boxes, belts, carpet-rods, candle-sticks, combs, hair-brushes, shoes, 
stockings- spool-stand, muskets, &c." 

If a spirit can handle so many things at once, and alone, how is it 
that they want a medium at all .? 

In the year 1679 the house of Mr. Morse, of Newbury, Conn., was 
for two months visited by vexations. " Stones were thrown through the 
windows, and down chimney, furniture cast out doors, implements of 
cookery flew about the room from one end to the other, ashes scattered 
in the food, milk pails filled with dirt. When the man and wife were 
in bed, a stone of three pounds was thrown on the man's stomach, a box 
and board was thrown at them, and thjy were beaten with a bag of 
hops. While the man was at prayer, he was struck with a broom on 
the back of his- head — ashes thrown in his face — the light blown out — 
and he beaten, in the dark, with a pair of leather breeches ; his hair 
pulled 5 his body scratched ; bed clothes pulled oif ; his night cap 
twitched oif, stones thrown, candle-stick flung at him ; pricked by a 
bodkin till blood came, pails of water emptied on him, until, says Dr. 
Mather, they were "in an uncomfortable pickle." This matches well 
with the facts at Mr. Cowles'. Dr. Mather and Richard Baxter said 
this was the Devil — " Old Hornie," as Burns calls him. 

In the Silesian castle, Hahn and Kerner first had lime thrown down 



A DISCUSSION. 279 

on their heads, then chinks of lime mortar were thrown. One morning 
much lime was on the floor. It was then thrown and struck Hahn ; 
then came knives, forks, brashes, caps, slippers, padlocks, funnels, 
snuffers, soap, everything, in short, that was movable was thrown about 
the room. Knives and snuffers and shears rose from the table. Raps 
and thumps were on the wall and bed, and lights darted from corner to 
corner. Kern looking in the glass saw a white female figure looking 
out of it, his own shadow was directly behind it. He saw his own and 
her's also, the figure moved, looked into his eyes, (a, physical and mental 
shadow both at once,) her head was wrapped in a cloth. A spiritual 
night cap, probably, w<«-n in the first sphere. Hahn's razor, soap-box 
and brush, were thrown at him when about to shave, and while strap- 
ping his razor the ghost drank up his hot water in the basin. A piece 
of sheet lead was thrown at him twice. John, Kern's servant, saw the 
jug lifted, beer poured out, the glass lifted and the beer drank, and ex- 
claimed, " Lord Jesus ! it swallows." Ghosts love " beer, hot water and 
filberts.'" Hahn saw a ghost dog behind Kern. These are a similar 
class of facts with the above. "Was this the " Old Harry," a ghost, od- 
force, or Mrs. Martin's puppies ; or all at once ? 

Austinburgh beats all this. At the house of Mr. E. S. A., in Aus- 
tinburgh, similar demonstrations occurred. I extract from the Family 
Visitor, Oct. 19. It appears a young woman's husband had gone to 
California, and was killed, as his spirit writes, by " swallowing an alli- 
gator." The widow was directed by the " spirit of her mother," to 
marry a pedlar. They " say they are spirits," and it must be so, 
according to friend Brittan. The spirits wrote out their directions. 
These documents are sworn to and subscribed by two unimpeachable 
witnesses as the hand writing of the medium. The spirits were trying 
to bring " Pa " into the kingdom. The spirits direct the mediums "to 
appear like idiots, talk all that came in their minds, baptize each other 
and Pa too." This done, a large Japan server was filled by spirit direc- 
tion with " spools, thimbles, scissors, shells " — and other traps. A work- 
box was also filled with spirit ammunition. At the striking of the clock 
the spirit seized the medium, and forced her to throw the server and aU 
its contents down the stairway, which echoing and reverberating like so 
many Chinese gongs, starts ail to their feet. One enters the stairway 
and down comes a box of traps, like " Hail Columbia," upon his head. 
He went up stairs — everything in the room was in the wildest confusion.. 
One young medium stood in wild affright ax the " physical demonstra-- 
tions." The widow lay sprawled on the floor, and the ghosts giving her- 



280 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

fits. Her hair disheveled, eyes rolling, mouth drooling, arms akimbo, 
and limbs awry. When the old man turned his back " a brush, a 
shoe," or something else, was hurled at his head. The pair were spir- 
itually married by another medium, the ceremony written out by the 
spirit-mother of the grass widow. The ghost had prophesied that after 
the ceremony the parlor must be darkened and then they would see 
what had never been witnessed by mortal eyes. " The room is to be 
lighted up with a ' spiritual illumination ' — (luminosities) and the 
spirit-forms of departed friends were to be present at the infair." 
When they were pronounced one, " electric sparks blinded their eyes." 
No other lights afpeared. This case resembles the others, and must 
have been the work of spirits as both mediums wrote out again and 
again that it was all the work of spirits. The demonstrations in Aus- 
tinburgh have been deeply mysterious, profoundly philosophical. 

As most of these occurrences are among Connecticut people, I sub- 
join the following as occurring in Salisbury, Conn., 1802, in a clothier's 
shop, A man and two boys, were in the shop, and at 10 o'clock, a 
stick of wood came in at the window, then pieces of lime-mortar ; the 
glass broke in profusion. It was very light and the throwing continued 
till daylight. At night, 8 o'clock, it began again and stopped at mid- 
night. Next night it commenced at dusk and stopped earlier. Next 
night an hour before sundown and stopped in an hour, at the shop, and 
began at the house of Mr. Landon. Nothing could be seen till the glass 
broke and the bits of mortar, stone and coal fell flat on the window sill. 
About fifty panes of glass were broken, two persons were hit by the mortar. 
It was witnessed by a whole neighborhood, and some clergymen, and 
accounted for by them as witchcraft and sleight of hand. It was ■peri- 
odic, and evidently a force acting between the missiles and glass favored 
the atmospheric conditions. 

Let us return now and note a fact that seems, to my mind, to throw 
light on the modus operandi of all these atmospheric and mental forces. 
I have stated before that all physical forces seem to act from the center. 
All theorists on storms assert that a storm cloud has at its center a 
point of air at rest, its centripetal point, while the currents from the 
surface rush toward that central point. Your fact of the writing of 
" Mrs. Minard, Litchfield," is instructive. Currents were seen rush- 
ing from the corners of the room and forming a center over the pencil, 
there, at the centripetal point, the ghost with " gray hair and beard " 
appeared. From this I conclude that Mrs. Minard's min.d acted as the 
centripetal force, while the circle, or person's minds in it, acted as the 



A DISCUSSION. 281 

centrifugal, and between the two tlie force was produced. This idea 
unfolds to me the deepest mystery in all these occurrences, and also in 
"magic forces so often spoken of in history and attested by good author- 
ity. The idea of a " magic circle " runs through the whole thing. 
Two persons or two forces are always required. The Whirling Dervishes 
always put one in the center and the rest move around him. Dr Faust 
and others, said to be in league with the Devil, work their arts by his 
presence. He is a mental force formed by the mind, and brought into 
play as a centripetal point or fulcrum on which to act. Miss Martha 
Cowles tells me that she noticed that the flinging and throwing of 
clothes and articles was always toward the person who seemed alarmed. 
This fact is prominent in Mr. Austin's narrative— just refer to it 
When the girls laughed the things flew at them ; when Dr. Cowles went 
after a candle things followed him. " II." was in these occurrences the 
centripetal force, her mind with the ideal " Ann " directed the whole. 
One class of blows — the lady thought "H." striking her. This was a 
mental bloui^ a mind force. 

The bewitched in New-England struck, pinched, bit, pricked, choked 
by a rope or chain, which they imagined was tied around their necks, 
and they showed signs of " suffocation." Biological " blows " are known 
to all, the subject impressed at fifty feet distance, that he will be struck 
when you slap your hands together, falls as if struck by an ax, and ab- 
solutely feels a blow. Mrs. Smith in her " Dream Land " tells of a 
step-mother who was struck in the face by an unseen force supposed to 
be the ghost of the mother whose child she abused. 

E. P. Rogers gives a case of a lady in New- York, who used a speak- 
ing tube to command the servants below. If she said anything that did 
not suit them, she received a blow through the tube in her mouth or 
teeth — a mental force controled by the servants. The idea in the other 
case is the controling force. I mentioned Dr. Faust's death in my last 
— the idea — his mental center, the Devil, killed him. 

A man blindfolded, with warm water pouring on his arm, has the 
idea that he is dying, and does die, killed by the idea. 

I have the following fact from a respectable clergyman. He received 
it from his father who witnessed the transaction. A ship-of-the-line, 
Bedford, in American service, when near the West Indies, was sailing 
in line with the fleet. This ship moved ahead rapidly, though the 
weather was calm The Captain ordered the siil taken in, till the 
masts were unshrouded, and yet it outrun the other vessels by Devil- 
force. The same ship, on the coast of Spain, in 'a dense fog at night. 



282 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

was bailed by a voice — " Bedford, ahoy !" The voice was heard on 
board by all — it was repeated three tioies. Groans were heard on the 
vessel — and screams below. The second mate was found on deck with 
his throat cut, and the boatswain below in the cabin wiih his brains 
dashed out. 

Cromwell was accused of a league with the Devil, and 'died on the 
day of the expiring of the seven years. One of the prophets cursed a 
man and he died. The negroes of the Indies, cursed by the Obi wo- 
man, die. These are influences worked out by an idea — by the supe- 
rior centripetal force of the mind. Elisha was to have a " double por- 
tion " of Elijah's spirit, " if Ae saw him go %^." He saw him go up — 
the idea fixed his faith. This explains why " Ann," the ideal spirit ot 
" H." obeyed " Frank," and also why calling on Grod and Christ, drove 
off Mrs. Martin's puppies. It was a higher idea — a stronger moral force 
— "Frank," the husband, was a higher being in "li.'s" mind than 
" Ann ;" so was God in the other case, above the Devil. The positive 
controling the negative, the centripetal the centi-ifugal force. Ann, the 
idea in H.'s mind in the demonstrations, was the positive — the superior, 
while H. to the persons present was the positive. Hymn singing and 
praying is strictly philosophical, founded on an eternal law, and is a 
force through which the mind grasps at the higher, the Deity. 

Two other important facts must be explained, the ghost and the sing- 
ing. The ghost of Ann, as seen, ■vy'as an exact image of the body as H. 
" last saw her, exce^pting that one arm was folded across the hreast.'''' That 
spoils your ghost, and fixes the image as the work of Dr. T.'s mind. 
He laid the arm " across the breast " after H. left, and she saw it as he 
left it. This plainly covers the law I alluded to in " Mrs. Minard." 
The mind of Dr. T. was the centripetal force and controled the image, 
and the facts puts the two minds en rapport. Let us have another 
ghost story from Connecticut. 

At the time of the Salem witch excitement, in 1692, " French and 
Indians," says Upham, " were seen hovering around the houses, skulk- 
ing over the fields and through the woods of Gloucester. They were 
seen by many of the inhabitants, and the Cape was in alarm for three 
weeks. The people retired to the garrison and prepared for defense. 
Sixty men repaired to Ipswich in uniform, to reinforce the garrison, 
and several valiant sallies were made from the wall, much powder ex- 
pended, but no blood shed." Rev. John Emerson gives an account 
of them. They wore " white waistcoats, blue shirts, and white breech- 
es." They remind one of Croly's devils. 



A DISCUSSION. 283 

" The Devil he a riding went — 
And how do you think the Devil was dressed ? 
0, all dressed up in his Sunday's best ; 
His coat was red, his trowsers of blue — 
And a little hole behind where his tail went through." 

Mr. Emerson says, no real French or Indians were there, but the 
Devil was at the bottom of it. These specters are based on a historical 
fact. The French and Indians were always one, and combined against 
the English. Philips' war had just passed over. Its bloody deeds had 
impressed all minds with these two images, and the excitement brings 
out the images, French and Indians. 

The world* can not evade the force of these facts. A law of Mental. 
Reflection exists in our being, and not a ghost can be found on record, 
well described, but I will show it to come under this law. Dr. Buchan- 
an affirms an organ of" Spectral Illusion " in the brain. It is a broad 
law of the human oi'ganization, and not an image exists in the mind but 
may be reflected around us, and seen at the focal point. Kern's ghost- 
woman was in front of his own shadow, and was a mind-image, as his 
shadow was his body-image — and this accounts for its ^position. The 
Seeherin affirms a similar fact. 

I have seized the key that unlocks the mystic realms of ghostdom, 
and I will hold it as a flaming torch over that dark domain till its shad- 
ows have fled forever from the minds of men. It is mental Dagiier- 
reotyping. 

Now for your music. The sounds, says Mr, A., seemed like instru- 
mental music— sweet and touching music — such as was never heard by 
those present. " Home, sweet Home " and " Yankee Doodle " were 
performed. Pretty well for an Irish ghost — singing and fiddling Yan- 
kee Doodle and Sweet Home. That beats Daniel's Yankee Hebrew. 

Walter Scott tells us of an English sergeant, who was about to be 
hung, on the oath of a Scotchman, who swore to the fact that the ghost 
of the murdered man camie to his bed and told him the facts ; but what 
saved the poor fellow's neck was that the English ghost " spoke in as 
good Gaelic as was ever heard." Hebrews, Dutch, and Irish, all seem 
to have turned Ya^z/cee in ghostdom. Playing " Yankee Doodle " must 
have fitted Ann, those "weird melodies," for a higher life, a holier 
sphere. " Ha ! ha ! he ! he !" But, friend Austin will ask, was that 
real music or a mental deception .'' It was real music, as I will show 
you. Dr. Abercrombie relates of a little peasant- girl, employed in 
tending sheep, at seven years of age, who used to sleep in an apartment 



284 BRITTAN AND RICHI.IOND. 

next to one occupied by an itinerant fiddler of mucli skill, who often 
spent the night in performing his best pieces. The child heard the 
sounds while asleep ; she subsequently fell into bad health, and was 
taken in care by a benevolent lady. Many years after, she resided with 
another lady, and the inmates of the house heard, late at night, most 
beautiful music — and at last traced it to her chamber. In her sleep 
she tuned her fiddle with her lips — then played in notes resembling per- 
fectly the violin.'^ She dashed off into the most elaborate pieces and 
played with great power. She sometimes stopped, returned her fiddle, 
and then played again. These fits return in from one to fourteen and 
twenty-eight nights. After a year or two she imitated the piano in the 
house, and several voices of ladies. She often preached, lectured, 
made fables. Bonaparte, Wellington, Blucher, and all the kings of 
the earth figured in her mental " elanjamphry." She conjugated Latin 
verbs, and spoke in French. When awake she was dull and awkward. 
These psychological powers may show themselves when asleep or 
awake — that is all ; the images always existing in the mind. "Yankee 
Doodle " and "•' Sweet Home " are plainly traced to the mind of " H." 

Yours truly, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 

& See Appendix, Note K 



BEITTAH A2TD EICHMOKB'S DISCTTSSIOl. 

NUMBER EIGHT. 

TELEGRAPHIC DISPATCHES FROM SPIRITS. 
Dear Sir : It must be obvious to the enlightened understanding that 
a rational faith, in vital and spiritual realities, is wholly different from 
those vulgar conceptions which are begotten in ignorance and born in 
Cimmerian darkness. Things essentially distinct do not become identi- 
cal, on account of our inability or unwillingness to perceive the most 
radical distinctions. Faith may be closely allied to science, notwith- 
standing many presume that faith and superstition must necessarily co- 
exist. I entertain the opinion that a true faith is strictly compatible 
with the highest exercise of the rational faculties. Reason is not neces- 
sarily violated by referring visible phenomena to invisible and spiritual 
causes, especially, since all ultimate causes are of this nature. When- 
ever it can be shown that the supposed causes are adapted to produce 
the alleged results, reason is duly respected. But the dicta of Nature 
and Reason are manifestly disregarded when we arrogantly assume that 
a particular phenomenon, or a specific effect, must depend on a certain 
physical agent, which has never been known to produce similar results, 
and, especially, if the whole history of that agent's operations affords an 
unanswerable refutation of the assumption. Thus a morbid apprehen- 
sion of being unreasonable prompts many timid men to accept the most 
absurd conclusions. In nothing is the cowardice of the professional and 
scientific classes more conspicuous than in this. The idea of any spir- 
itually-induced phenomena, less than eighteen hundred years old, is 
treated as a bugbear, and men either tremble at the contemplation, or 
go off scoffing about ghosts ! and thus the old and ghostly idea, of the 
other world and its inhabitants, is fostered by those who should lead in 
an investigation that promises to dissipate the phantoms engendered by 
superstition, and to disclose the true philosophy of our relations to the 
unseen. It is most emphatically true, in this case, that 
" Our doubts are traitors, 

And make us lose the good we oft might win 

By fearing to attempt." 

Since the Spiritual phenomena became so prevalent, some persons 
have deemed it possible to establish a regular system of telegraphic 



286 A DISCUSSION. 

communication with remote parts of the country and the world. It is 
not, however, pretended, by any rational mind, that the laws which reg- 
ulate this mode of communication are as yet sufficiently understood to 
warrant us in expecting satisfactory results. Hitherto, no systematic 
attempt has been made to enlist the mysterious powers in this service. 
But there have been numerous incidental illustrations of their capacity 
to convey intelligence, from one place to another, with the utmost 
promptness and accuracy. To some examples of this kind I now invite 
your attention. 

Greorge W. Mead, of Burdett, N. Y., under date of January 24th, 
1853, communicates the following fact, in a letter to Mr. Partridge. 
Mr. Mead, E. W. Lewis, L. Bigelow, and L. N Gardner, were holding 
an interview with what purported to be the spirit of John Locke. The 
mode of communication was observed by some one to be tedious, when 
the following was communicated through the alphabet : " I want you 
to get Swedenborg's Dictionary of Correspondences, and that will teach 
you more than I can in years." The writer says, neither of us ever 
saw the work, nor did we know where to obtain it, but, presently, the 
sounds were heard calling for the alphabet, and the following was 
spelled : " You will get the book at John Allen's, Nassau-street, New- 
York ; price, one dollar and twenty-five cents. Swedenborg." 

Not one of the company had any knowledge of John Allen, much 
less that his place of business was located in New- York, and in the par- 
ticular street designated, but a letter of inquiry was dispatched, ad- 
dressed as above, to which the subjoined answer was promptly re- 
turned : 

Mr. Geo. W. Mead : -Sir — I have the work you mention in your letter — the 
' Dictionary of Correspondences ' ; price one dollar and twenty-five. * * 

Yours truly, John Allen, 139 Nassau-street. 

New-York, July 29, 1852. 

Our correspondent says, " Let Dr. Richmond explain this if he can. 
If it was merely mind acting on mind — both parties being in this world 
— was it John Allen''s mind acting on our minds, when we were in Jef- 
ferson County and he in New-York City, some 200 miles distant, and 
while we had no idea that there was such a man in your city, or he 
that there were such men in Jefferson ?"* 

*Mr. Mead further states, in the same letter, that some time after Mr. Lewi.s 
inquired what other work would be most iiiteresting, and the following answer 
was received from the invisible intelligence: " ' A summary exposition of the in- 
ternal sense of the prophetical books of the Old Testament, and of the FsaluT^ of 
David.' This may be obtained at the same place, John Allen's." 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 



287 



Mr. Edward Hooper, of Fitchburgli, Mass., whose spiritual experi- 
ence furnished an interesting fact, contained in one of my former letters, 
also relates the following, in the same communication. He was stop- 
ping at a hotel in New-York, having left home only the day before 
(May 10, 1851). Mr. H. had just returned to the public house, after 
a few hours' absence, when he received a Spiritual-telegraphic dispatch 
from home. The fact is thus related in his letter which lies before me : 

" As soon as I entered my chamber the spirits commenced rapping, 
and informed me that, a few hours after I left Fitchburgh, my family 
was increased by the addition of a son. They stated the time, 
and also what persons were present, with perfect accuracy. I left my 
family well on the preceding day, and the event was not expected for 
several weeks. Mr. Laban Bullock and Moses Babcock, of Charles- 
town, Mass., were with me in New-York, and can certify to the occur- 
rence of this fact." 

Nearly two years since, Mr. J. H. Whiting of Bridgeport, Conn., 
called on Augusta Middlebrook, a rapping medium, when what purport- 
ed to be the spirit of his first wife was declared to be present. Durini:; 
the interview that ensued she informed him that her remains., ^ohichwere 
deposited at Milwaukee^ Wis.., had been removed. This surprised him, 
for he had no knowledire of the alleged fact. Some time after a Mr. 
Mygatt — an old neighbor of Mr. Whiting while the latter had his resi- 
dence at that place — happened to be traveling this way and called on 
Mr. W. In the course of their conversation, Mr. M. informed his 
friend that, a street had been opened through the burial-place, and that 
the remains of Mrs. Whiting had been removed, and this narration con- 
firmed the statement of the spirit in every essential particular. 

On occasion of his interview with the spirits, Mr. Whiting inquired 
for the shade of a Mr. Otis, whom he had known in Milwaukee, and 
who — at the time Mr. W. removed from that place — in 1845, was re- 
duced very low of consumption, and in the opinion of his physicians 
could siirvive at most but a few days. Mr. Whiting had not the re- 
motest idea that he yet remained in the body. But instead of receiv- 
ing an answer from the immortal Mr. Otis, W.'s first wife answered in 
his stead, informing her husband that Otis was still in the form, was 
well, and engaged in business in Milwaukee. Mr. W^hiting has since 
learned that the information so received was strictly correct. 

While Mr. Whiting remained at the West he sustained business rela- 
tions to J. M. W. Lace, who proved to be a desperate character. The 
parties named had loaned money from a Mr. Curtis, of Norwalk, Conn., 



288 A DISCUSSION. 

which was invested in real estate, and, in the course of the transactions, 
a deed, which was to have been recorded in Milwaukee and forwarded 
to Mr. Curtis as security for his money, was missing and could not be 
found. Some time after the deed, and other papers including a note 
for eleven hundred dollars, had disappeared. Lace went before a Master 
in Chancery and swore that he knew nothing of the deed, etc., but be- 
lieved the missing papers to be in the hands of Mr. Whiting. Some 
two years since, and while a protracted lawsuit was yet pending, Mr. 
Whiting was informed by the spirit of his deceased wife, Miss Middle- 
brook being the medium, thatiace had the deed among other papers and 
that it would eventually he obtained. Last October Lace, having accom- 
plished the seduction of Ann Maria Wheeler, was shot in the street at 
Milwaukee, by his victim, who is now in prison, awaiting her trial on a 
charge of murder. Since the death of Lace, the lost deed has been found 
among his pape7's T 

Mr. ^Whiting, who related these facts to me but yesterday, is a gen- 
tleman of the most scrupulous veracity. The medium is not clairvoy- 
ant, neither is she a magnetic subject, nor is there the slightest per- 
ceptible influence, exerted over her mind and nervous system, by the 
agency that produces the sounds. At the time these disclosures were 
made she was an unsophisticated child of fourteen years, and had never 
been nearer Milwaukee than New-York city. The old shift will not 
suffice to resist the force of these facts. To assume that the medium 
was en rapport with the churchyard, the mortal remains of Mrs. Whit- 
ing, with the mind of Lace, the deed in his pocket, or with any other 
person or thing in Milwaukee, of whom or of which she had not the 
slightest knowledge, is an assumption so gross and palpable that, any 
attempt to expose its weakness and absurdity would be a work of su- 
pererogation. 

Mrs. Harriet Porter, of Bridgeport, frequently receives these tele- 
graphic dispatches from spirits, and the mode of communication in her 
case is somewhat peculiar. The messages appear to her as if they were 
plainly written on the wall, the table, or on the person of some one who 
may be in her presence at the time. In the month of January last, 
while she was one evening seated at the tea table, Mrs. Porter felt the 
impression of a hand on her shoulder. Presuming that some one had ap- 
proached from behind, desiring to speak with her, she looked round, but 
saw no one who could have produced the sensation. She felt the hand 
on her shoulder the second time, and then the name. Captain Lum, 
appeared in plain letters on the table before her. Jlr, Lum, who de- 
* See Appendix, Note S B B. 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 289 

ceased some years since, left a widow who was in New-Haven at the 
time the spirit announced its presence to Mrs. Porter. After the name 
appeared the spirit said, " Ai eight o^lock this evening I will direct viy 
wife to come to Bridgeport to-morroio night.'''' On the evening of the 
ensuing day Mrs. Lnm came into the house of Mrs. Porter, having just 
arri-v^ed from New-Haven, and after the usual salutations said, "/ was 
iinp-essed., about eight o''dock last evening., to come to Bridgeport to-night, 
and I feel sure it was the spirit of my husband that impressed 7«e." 

Miss Sarah Hutchinson, formerly of Boston, Mass., but now of New- 
York city, received on the night of the 14th of last December — in a 
dream — a message from the Spirit-world, to the effect that she would re- 
ceive a dispatch, by the magnetic telegraph, announcing the death of her 
brother, Webster Hutchinson. The circumstance made such an im- 
pression on her mind that she was unable to do anything during the 
following morning, but waited in a state of painful expectation for the 
intelligence. Before noon the door-bell rang, and she had a positive 
consciousness that the expected tidings had arrived. A dispatch was 
handed her announcing the fact that her brother was but just alive, and 
it subsequently appeared that, he was actually dead at the hour when the 
dispatch icas received. 

Miss Mary Banning, a medium, being at the house of Mr. Moore, in 
Winchester, Conn., June 14th, 1852, called for the spirit of her brother, 
Josiah Banning, but he did not present himself as usual. The call was 
repeated during the evening, but to no purpose. Finally, at a late hour, 
and when the members of the company were about to separate for the 
night, the presence of Josiah Banning was unexpectedly announced., 
The spirit assigned as the reason why he did not come in the early part 
of the evening that, ' he had been with his sister Edith all day.'' Miss 
Edith Banning was at Hartland, Conn., some sixteen miles distant, em- 
ployed in teaching school. Very soon Mrs. Banning received a letter 
from Edith, written the next morning after the occurrence of the inter- 
view at Mr. Moore's, already described, in which she stated that Josiah 
had been with her all the previous day., and that his presence through the 
night had kept her awake. The mode of manifestation at Hartland was 
by sounds on and around the person of Miss Banning. 

Mr. B. McFarland, who until recently lived in Lowell, Mass., has a. 
gifted daughter who, it would seem, is favored with " angels' visits "far 
more frequently than the old proverb would authorize us to expect. 
This young lady passed the winter of 1851-2 in the State of Georgia, 
and it was during her stay at the South that an interesting fact oecurredi 

19 



290 A DISCUSSION. 

"vvliich I will introduce in this connection. The following account is 
extracted from an unpublished letter, recently received from Mr. Mc- 
Farland : 

S. B. Brittan : Dear Sir : On the evening of Feb. 2d, 1852, while a circle was 
convened at our residence, in Lowell, my wife inquired if Louisa (our deceased 
daughter) was with us, and was answered in the afiirmative. In reply to the 
question, " Are you often with Susan .'" [our only surviving daughter, who was 
then traveling with her friends in Georgia] the spirit answered that she was. 
My wife then requested the spirit to " go and stay with Susan and keep her 
from all harm while she was away," to which Louisa replied — by rapping — that 
she would. This, it should be remembered, was on the evening of February 2d. 
In about one week from that time we received a letter from Susan, dated, Ata- 
lanta, Ga., Feb. 3d, 1852, in which the following fact was stated : " Last night 
we had a sitting and Louisa came and rapped for the alphabet, and spelled out to 
me this sentence, viz : '■'■ Mother waiits me to come and stay with you, and 
keep you from all harm while away from home." "Louisa." 

Thus you see that some invisible agent, claiming to be my daughter, received 
the communication in Lowell, Mass., and delivered it word for word in the town 
of Atalanta, Ga., and all within the space of an hour. 

Yours, &c., B. McFarland. 

Isaac T. Hopper, who died in New-York during the past year, was 
an active member of the Prison Association and a distinguished philan- 
thropist. Judge Edmonds, being a member of the same association, 
and interested in other reforms to which Mr. Hopper devoted his life, 
formed an intimate acquaintance with the venerable Friend, and was 
accustomed to visit him frequently, more especially during his last ill- 
ness. One day the Judge called to see Mr. Hopper, and was agreea- 
bly surprised to find him more comfortable than he had expected. Af- 
ter a brief interview Mr. Edmonds departed, assured, in his own mind, 
that Friend Hopper would continue several days at least. The Judge 
bad occasion to spend an hour or two at another place, and on his return 
■home, having to pass the residence of Mrs. Brown (formerly Mrs. Fish,) 
he called for a few moments, when the rappings announced to him that 
Isaac T. Hopper was present. The Judge was incredulous, but the 
immortal Friend insisted that he was indeed there, and that he had left 
the body about an hour before. Judge Edmonds went immediately to 
Mr. Hopper's where he learned to his astonishment that his friend, and 
the friend of Humanity, closed his mortal career at the hour designated. 

I have not the space to continue this citation of facts. The exam- 
ples already GiQfered must suffice to indicate the general characteristics 
of a very numerous class. Every person who has carefully pursued the 
investigation, .for any considerable time, must have witnessed similar 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 291 

exhibitions of spiritual agency. I believe that not a single fact contained 
in this letter has ever been given to the public through any other chan- 
nel, and yet our resources in this respect are not likely to be speedily 
exhausted. Every day adds new and significant illustrations to the 
records of human experience, and we apprehend that, a critical analysis 
of this mysterious power, and the multiform modes whereby it acts on 
mind and matter, will make all sublunary theories appear vain and 
meaningless. It is not my purpose to force the acceptance of any hy- 
pothesis. I offer no theory — not even the Spiritual — but I do insist 
that the legitimate claims of the facts themselves, and of the power that 
underlies them, should be respected. This power is superior to all its 
visible or phenomenal exhibitions, and is able to excercise a supreme 
control over the passive and plastic forms which leap like living things 
in its inspiring presence. 

Have my facts any affinity for your theories } Let us see. Two 
minds are said to be en ra/pfort when they sustain such relations that 
one is conscious of the thoughts and emotions of the other. This 
mingling of mind with mind, in the normal state, is not, however, known 
to occur at a distance letween strangers. Not only are the parties 
required to have a personal knowledge of each other, but one, at least, 
must have an exquisite susceptibility to mental impressions, while a state 
of mutual sympathy and association is indispensible. The parties, in 
some of the examples already given, were entire strangers. It is at 
once conceded that distinct impressions of ideal images are silently trans- 
mitted from one person to another, even at a distance, however, this 
occurs but seldom and only when the parties are thinking intensely of 
each other. Either the jperson who communicates^ or the one xvho receives 
the impression, must he absorbed in thought inspecting the other or no such 
phenomena are liable to occur. In recording this opinion I do not speak 
at a venture, but from the results obtained by several years' practical 
observation and experiment. Even where the parties are familiar 
friends we are required to seek, in the accompanying circumstances, for 
the proofs that they are en rapport. The fact that information is con- 
veyed from one to the other does not of itself establish this assumption 
— does not even give it the appearance of probability — in the absence 
of indispensible conditions, and in the presence of the mysterious powers 
who persist in telling their own story and will sanction no qualification 
of their claims. 

It is particularly worthy of observation that this blending of mental 
spheres, of persons in this world, develops -no phenomejin milside of the 



292 A DISCUSSION. 

individual. No rappings, moving of ponderable objects, or other liko 
physical effects accompany the psychological action, nor can they pos- 
sibly occur from this cause. And here the insufficiency of all your spec- 
ulations to account for the facts is too conspicuous to require exposure. 
In the results ascribed to spirits the mental and fhysical jphenomena are 
everywhere so Mended as to warrant the conviction that they are produced 
by the same agents. Let us take a single fact and make an application of 
your hypothesis. An invisible agent, claiming to be the spirit of 
Louisa McFarland, conveyed a message from Lowell, Mass., to 
Atalanta, G-a., in one hour, and delivered it v/ith great accu- 
racy and verbal precision to the proper person. Thei'e is no evi- 
dence that Mrs. McFarland and her daughter were en rapport, at that 
particular time, or that they are mutually capable of such intimate com- 
munion as to render so delicate an experiment possible. We do not 
learn that the young lady had even thought of her mother, on that occa- 
sion, until the communication was received.* Moreover, it does not 
appear that Mrs. M, can, hj a postdbility, disclose her thoughts in this 
manner, and at so great a distance, and the presumption that the daugh- 
ter is so extremely susceptible as to receive intelligence, by this psy- 
chological process, almost from one end of the continent to the other, is 
neither sustained by the facts nor by the most distant probability. But 
it is abundantly evident that the communication was transmitted by some 
intelligence that acted independently of the other parties. That agent 
had po^er to demonstrate its presence by sounds and other physical 
effi3cts, and without the use of any visible instrumentalities. Its myste- 
rious transit from Massachusetts to G-eorgia was performed in a single 
hour, and for aught we know to the contrary, in an instant, while it not 
only fully comprehended the nature of the mother's request, but faith- 
fully accomplished the object of its mission. Was not that the work of 
a Spirit t I have no space to closely analyze the other facts, but pertLit 
rae to say, that an agent gifted with such mysterious and angelic powers 
may command my attention and respect, and I shall deliberate long 
before I join you in denying its peculiar claims. 

With this assurance, I remain, Yours truly, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



* It is a significant circumstance that after the spirit promised to go to Geor- 
gia, nothing more could be heard of it at Lowell, that night, though repeated 
inquiries were made. 



REPLY TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

NUMBER EIGHT. 

SPIRITUAL TELEaRAPHING. 

My Dear Sir : Unpleasant as the task is, some of your " aid and 
comfort " friends must be hooped or they will explode, and after a few 
words to Prof. Bush I will attend to them.* His reply is entirely in 
place, as I had alluded to his statement, and confirms in toto the criti- 
cism of Rev. Dr. Carter. 

The notion any one may entertain of the manner of the writing, 
whether from right to left or the reverse, is not material — but this fact 
is material : the spirit of the Hebrew Daniel would not have made such 
a blunder as the facts plainly show to have been committed in that 
writing ; for whoever wrote that Hebrew was ignorant of Hebrew and 
its manner of reading. No honest spirit would have so disfigured this 
progressive movement by such a sham — and is not the Devil at the bot- 
tom of it after all .? If " Cloots " has played off this trick on Edward, 
lis pretty shrewd. He brings Franklin along ; that is to compliment the 
printers — Greeley, and Gray of the Plain Dealer^ and others who favor 
the movement; then Dr. Hahnemann, the Homeopath, is seen in the 
company ; that was possibly to flatter Dr. G-ray, Kirby, Prof. Rosa, and 
Richmond. Much obliged, my old friend — that's Homeopath among 
the '' upper ten " — I comprehend the compliment — thank ye. Then 
others in " oriental costumes " were brought along, to cover up the idea 
that it was a " Yankee trick," — the Devil I suppose to be a Yankee. 
Then he sees a " magnetic battery," and the whole game is played oflF 
in the name of science, to show that they were " up with the times," 
the '' friends of progress." Now do the creatures really keep magnetic 
batteries and oriental costumes up there ? A stream of lightning from 
the Shetland Isles could not more perfectly blast and scatter a rock, 
than that relation of facts wipes out itself as being of spiritual origin. 
I greatly admire the manly candor and outspoken sincerity of Prof 
Bush in his closing remarks ; and I thank him for the letter. His 
opinions are now in the form that I desired they should be. 

* The remarks respecting the correspondence here referred to are omitted in 
this connection. 



294 A DISCUSSION. 

With me, Swedenborg is authority beyond any writer, living or dead. 
As I am able to see things, he has penetrated deeper into the arcana 
of the future than any mortal that our planet has produced — but he is 
• not infallible ; nor is any mortal. His great mistake was this, and was 
inevitable, as facts clearly prove. Man being an epitome of the Uni- 
verse, he must have a spiritual and physical nature, and the latter cor- 
responds perfectly to the former, and we must have then of necessity a 
physical and a psychological temperament ; the one corresponding to 
the outer world and the other to the inner world. This admitted, we 
of necessity must have a law of mental rejlection, as we have a law of 
physical reflection. The harmony is evidently lost between these two 
temperaments. The ancients, says Prof. Schlegel, regarded the whole 
material world as an optical illusion — as a mere sAa^/ow— plainly showing 
that they knew some objects seen around them were shadows, while they 
appeared to the eye material — and not being able to detect the law which 
covered the fallacy from their sight, they rashly concluded that if one 
object could deceive the sight, all might, and therefore the whole must 
be a shadow — an optical deception. Swedenborg has fallen into the 
opposite, or a similar, mistake as to the Spirit-world. The harmony 
between his temperaments being lost, when in his psychological state 
the persons and beings he saw about him he regarded as real spiritual 
beings, while I hold them to have been simply vu7ital shadows, the 
images and daguerreotypes of his own vast store-house of forms and 
thoughts. He could no more correct that fallacy in that condition, 
than we can correct the fallacies of the dream state, for I hold the 
whole to be essentially the " dream land." 

But what a horrid light this law glares over the future, with its 
sights and sounds. Every act in this life perpetrated by the consent of 
mind, becomes an eternal companion, seen and heard and felt while mem- 
ory tells us we exist. What Swedenborg regarded as the unfolding of 
the Spirit-world in future, I regard as the unfolding the Spiritual world 
within us, the terrible bringing out, as in a mirror, of our inner life. 
Hell, I apprehend, would be a pleasant dose compared to such a mirror 
with many of us. I may have fallen into a fallacy myself in this mat- 
ter, for I have not read all the works of the Baron Swedenborg. A 
more sincere spirit than his earth never had. 

There is on record a great variety of facts, showing most conclusively 
that, at certain times, the human mind gathers up intelligence in an un- 
seen way. All prophesy is of this character, and I most religiously 
believe in such a spirit. It is, I apprehend, mathematical in its char- 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 295 

acter. "When certain facts have been absorbed into the mind, a result 
is deduced with as much certainty as from a number of figures carried 
into the mind by sound. Josephus prophesied the destruction of Jota- 
pata by Titus, on the " forty-seventh " day of the seige. How did his 
mind obtain that intelligence } Was he inspired ? The Seeress of 
Prevorst announced the death of certain persons many days before its 
occurrence. Was she inspired.'' William Lilly predicted the death of 
Councillor Whitiocke. one of the most eminent lawyers of England, by 
examining his urine. Lenthal, speaker of the House of Commons, and 
vSelden were both Lilly's friends. Whilelock often speaks of him and 
relates that Lilly predicted to him the battle of " Naseby and the fall 
of the King from his horse about that time." This Lilly, who lived in 
1648, was pensioned by the English Courts, and received a gold chain from 
Charles X, King of Sweden. He was simply a noted astrologer, and 
how did he gain his' intelligence, by spirit's inspiration or the Devil ? 
Lady Davies, a noted English woman, predicted the death of Sir John 
Davies. Sitting at dinner with him she burst into tears. He inquired 
the cause. She replied, they are your funeral tears. Then in good 
health, he laughed at it, but in a few days died of appoplexy. She 
professed to receive this intelligence from a spirit's voice which she 
alone heard. Socrates received intelligence in a singular way, and by 
a spirit or demon he supposed — as the spirit used to " sneeze,^'' to no- 
tify him of certain things. — (See Groodwin's Nee.) 

Ibn Batuta, born in 1300, was a great traveler, and visited a Pagan 
saint on the borders of Thibet, who performed " great and notable mir- 
acles," and lived to the age of one hundred and fifty-thi'ee. Batuta 
conceived a great desire for a beautiful yellow garment, worn by the 
Sheik who accompanied the Saint. The Saint who could read " men's 
thoughts," as well as the future, went to the side of the cave, took off 
the yellow robe, with his fillet and sleeves, and gave them to Batuta, 
■who was greatly surprised as he had not mentioned his desire. The 
Fakeers told Batuta that the Saint had predicted that the robe would 
be taken from him by an infidel king and given to the Sheik of Sagiri, 
for whom it was made. Batuta, pleased with the beautiful present, de- 
termined never to go into the presence of a king with his garment, but, 
strange to tell, the Emperor of China took the robe from Batuta and 
gave it to that very Sheik, as the Saint had predicted. (See Lives of 
Travelers, by St. John.) Where did that Moslem Saint get his pro- 
phetic knowledge .'' I regard it as a deduction of the human mind with. 
its spiritual faculties fully developed. 



296 A DISCUSSION. 

Mr. Grimes, the celebrated phrenologist, states that he saw a lunatic 
who would instantly pick any thought from his mind. This fact I have 
from Mr. Greeley. A lady in the County House in Geauga Co., often 
showed this same mysterious power. How is it that many children, 
when numbers are pronounced to them, instantly^ without a process of 
reasoning ; deduce the result with miraculous precision. These cases 
are numerous. Children often show this same intuitive -perce-ption of 
sound, and play the piano, fiddle, or drum, at the first sight of the in- 
strument. The whole mystery of genius lies in this rjoysterious psycho- 
logical temperament. Angelo, Mozart, Apelles, and a host of geniuses 
have shown these high spiritual perceptions. Josephine predicted the 
fall of Napoleon. A negress predicted the Queenship of Josephine 
when a mere child, dancing on the green. These facts have passed 
into history, and I demand of rational men a solution of them. You 
must show them to be the work of inspiration, or spirit visitants, or they 
establish a law of the human mind which intuitively 'perceives results and 
deduces with mathsmatieal certainty the quotient from given numbers, 
so to speak. 

The doctrine of Pythagoras, that number is the law of life, is entirely 
clear to my mind. I could swell this class of facts almost infinitely, but 
T must pass to another point. 

Your first case of" G. W Mead, of Burdett," is a curious fact, and 
the candor with which Mr. M. applies my explanation, is refreshing in 
the midst of the general flunkyism that marks many that see fit to dif- 
fer with me. Precisely what put him en rapport with Mr Allen, I can 
not gather from the narrative ; but Mr. Allen's mind contained all the 
knowledge you obtained, and to refer it to any other law than that by 
which the somnambule took notes from the mind of Jenny Lind is, to 
my mind, wholly illogical. I have a little boy, but five years old, that 
often displays this intuitive perception of what is passing in my mind, 
both in the sleep and waking state. His temperament is quick, (his 
mother died of consumption,) and he not unfrequently comes tome and 
begins to prattle about the very subject of my thoughts. One morning 
he awoke and was very much dejected, and told me that " he dreamed 
that I was going aic ay.'''' I had been closely occupied all day with 
that very subject, and his little mind had been reveling in mine, in his 
sleeping hours. A mesmeric patient of Prof. Burrit's was so wholly 
under his control that, in attempting to mesmerize another lady, half a 
mile oflF, she went into fits^ and when talking of her six miles off, she 
again had fits, and a message was dispatched to find him. The same 



ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 297 

would have occurred had he been in England. Space has nothing to 
do with the phenomenon, being " 200 miles " from New- York, or had 
Mr. Allen been in California, it would have been the same. Edward 
Hooper's case is illustrative of the same law, and the cause of the men- 
ial rajp'port^ is plain. The baby — mercy sakes ! a boy ! — a boy will put 
a mother's heart en rapport with its father in India. It must not be 
forgotteti that many similar efforts to telegraph fail wholly. The case 
of Mr. Whiting, of Bridgeport, is similar ; the medium took the facts 
from minds in Milwaukee ; the cause of the movement I can not detect 
The case of Mr. Otis is also similar ; the fact was gleaned from his 
mind and the power that gleaned it- took on the personality of his wife. 

It is certain that in all these cases the intuitive force of mind takes on 
personation ; it must' do so in order to act at all. It must have an idea^ a 
central force^ in order to move out into the surrounding medium. I can 
almost always detect that fact in the narratives. The story of Lace is 
the same, and needs no comment. While this power to glean facts 
from other minds is admitted, and all the facts obtained are found in 
living human beings, your assuriaption that my explanation is a 
" gross and palpable assumption," outrages all the rules of inductive 
logic. There is just as much evidence that that is the source of the 
facts, as that yoit,r likeness in the Shekinah, is a copy of your features, 
and just as much evidence that the medium's mind received it from 
this living source, as that your face reflects its image on the plate of 
the artist, through the rnedium of light. Touch this logic and take it 
apart; your '■^assumptions" fid I dead at your feet. 

Mrs. Porter, of Bridgeport, was plainly in rapport with Mrs. Lum. 
The mind of Mrs. Lum first impresses Mrs. Porter, and pei'sonates her 
husband, and Mrs. P. sees his name, (a mental reflection of the impres- 
sion) and Mrs. Porter's mind returns the impression and mentally im- 
presses her to call on her. The hour of the two impressions corres- 
pond, and the whole facts indicate the above movement. The S o'clock 
was the centripetal force — the idea by which Mrs. P. acted on the 
mind of Mrs. L. But she felt his hani and saw his in letters, " Cap- 
tain Lum," on the table. In the case of " Mrs Minard, Litchfield," 
the fact varies a little, Mr. Minard reflected unluckily his own image, 
instead of his wife's. He had on " white beard and hair " — a spiritual 
" goatee " — worn among the " upper ten." Now for facts. 

"Carsten Niebuhr, the great Grerman scholar and Oriental traveller, 
when old and blind, recalled with such power the memory of his early 
adventures, that the scenes painted themselves on his sightless eyeballs. 



298 A DISCUSSION. 

"When on his bed, pictures of the gorgeous orient flashed on his mental 
sight, as vivid as though he had just closed his eyes to shut them out 
for a moment. The cloudless blue, bending over the broad desert, and 
studded by night with SotUhern constellations^ as bright and beautiful as 
when he saw them half a century before." Brave and good old man — 
may the "■ stars and blue-sky " of life glitter eternally before thee, and 
" living hearts and beaming eyes " sound their songs eternally in thy 
soul. This is the eternal book of memory that shall never be closed. 

You ask me how this can occur unconsdously . I know it does, and 
cite a fact. The Eev. Wm. Tenant's case is notorious. He died^ as 
was supposed, and was only saved, from buiial by his physician. He 
had been a scholar, and when he awoke from his trance^ he had lost all 
his previous knowledge. One day his sister read to him from the Bible, 
a word struck his mind and he soon recovered all he had lost. He 
retained and wrote out bis interior sight while in his trance, and it is to 
be regretted that these papers were lost. His case clearly proves s 
donhh temperament, waking and sleep. 

Napoleon saw the form of Josephine, sitting near him in white robes, 
the night before his death. The Seherin of Prevorst saw her oum spirit 
sitting not far from her, clothed in white, in a dress that she had, but 
not on her person at the time. Walter Scott, when reading the death 
of Byron, raised his eyes and saw the poet standing in the farther end 
of the Hall, clothed appropriately. The Witches of Salem, sato the spir- 
its of their tormentors walking about the room, in Court time, taking 
up the legs of one, then another. The Devil sat by, " all dressed up in 
his Sunday's best," with his " red hook.,'''' and these specters " signed it 
with blood." (See Hildreth.) Mental reflection can alone solve these 
facts well attested. A Mrs. Brewster, Auburn, Ohio, saw her husband 
return from mill one day, with his team, and go into the yard. He did 
not reiurn for many hotirs after. " Coming events cast their shadows 
before." He was in a few days seized with epilepsy and has suffered 
for years with these fits, 

I select a few facts from Mrs. Hauf's (Seherin's) ghosts oxmental 
reflections at Weinsberg : 

1. Grhost of a man, had on " a loose white coat and slippers and white 
cap." 2. Mr. P. saw in a wine cellar a female ghost in " white antique 
dress, spotted with blood, a vail on her head and child in her arms." 
3. Mrs. H. saw a man dressed in " a long open coat, broad buttons, 
short hose, rolled stockings, shoes with buckles, cravat fastened by a 
button and two long ends hung down." A female accompanied this 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 291) 

figure, had on a vail, a coat and petticoat, her child in her arms was 
" wrapped in rags." Pretty fair traps for ghosts. She prayed for 
them ; they grew whiter, and then their robes were brighter also. Mr. 
L. saw the ghost of a minister standing by his desk, in " long robes." 
4. Mrs. H, saw two females in antique costumes, " cotton aprons, folded 
coifs. She and her husband quarrelled — she cried and prayed and 
wished herself with her mother," (i. e. dead). "She saw before her 
a tall white form. She saw a light on the wall large as a plate." When 
she sees these forms her eyelids are always closed. " A tall ghost 
entered her room, in " white coat " ; another wore a " yellowish white 
coat." " Raps, steps, scratching. Walking, and coughing, was often 
heard by her and others." These forms often sung hymns with her, 
and what is curious, those hymns only known to Mrs H. They 
seldom came Sunday night. Ann Merrick did not come in " holy 
time." Ttiey sometimes " asked for money," — wished to grog per- 
haps. Saw also " black and white and gray spirits." 5. Saw an old 
man — " had a long beard, old-fashioned coat and hat, and half boots." 
6. Contains Kern's " old woman and dog ghost. She and her sister 
both saw one specter, and both dreamed one dream," — en rapport ex- 
plains this latter fact. 9. Ghost appeared in " great coat and boots 
and cap." Afterward he wore white robes. 10. "Black coat on, 
sandy gray face." 11. "A tall form in frock and boots." 12. A man 
who died of tremens — appeared to her as lotig as his body was in the 
coffin. " She received a premonition of his daughter's trust." 13. Three 
male specters came in dancing— she prayed with them, they afterward 
wore white robes. 16. Never sees the hair of unbkst spirits, but blest 
spirits have it. Lusimon Roy's " hair renovator " would help them. 
19. A dark spirit came to her — she commanded him to go to her phy- 
sician. Kerner felt a strange atmosphere for a moment during the 
night. En rapport again. 20. " Mrs. H. had a dream of her father, 
who was dead ; her brother and sister saw him the same night, though 
far away." 22. " Saw a female form in costume, with a human heart 
in her hand." She saw ghosts of reptiles, " frog , owls, cats, and 
horses." 

This curious book of Kerner's, is worth a careful perusal ; but the 
ghosts or spirits in coats, pants, boots, cravats, gowns, robes, and hair, 
as plainly declare them to be mental shadows as the sun proclaims the 
light. 

Let us have a few cases in groups of reflections : 

Elibha saw the mountain full of the " chariots of Israel and the horse- 



300 A DISCUSSION. 

men thereof." Did he really see celestial cart-wheels.^ Are they 
used in that country ? 

Stephen saw, when being stoned, " Heaven opened and Christ sitting 
on the right hand of Grod." Are there then two Almighty, invisible, jet 
visible Deities ? 

In Granby, Conn , some families were seized with singular symptoms. 
" They run about like persons distracted, heard voices and noises, saw 
spirits in the air," &c. 

Marco Polo, in crossing the Desert of Look, in Tartary, his guides 
affirmed that the desert was beset with strange sounds and sights. In 
the vast sand-storms that swept over it " they heard sounds of music, 
and voices of friends calling them by their names ; then drums beat, 
clash of arms followed, foot falls ; hoofs clattered, and armies marched 
past them." — (Polo's travels.) 

In the year of Rome 291, a plague swept the city of august consuls 
and people. The next year was filled with prodigies. " Fires were seen 
in the heavens, the earth shook, specters appeared, voices were heard, 
and an ox spoke." — (Livius.) 

In New-England, before Philips' war, " bows were seen in the sky, 
scalps in the moon, unseen horsemen galloped through the air " — (Hil- 
dreth.) 

Here both the sight asd hearing is affected, and that all these facts 
(and I have a cart full more) attest that a law which the race has over- 
looked — a law of mental reflection, exists in our organization. 

Marmaduk Stephenson, an Englishman, while ploughing in Yorkshire, 
in 1655, was " filled with the love and presence of the living (xod. It 
increased like a living stream ; so did the love and life of God run 
through me like precious ointment, giving a pieasant pmell, which made 
me to stand still, and a voice came to him," &c. This he affirmed in a 
letter after sentence of death in Boston — the American Athens. He 
both heard and smelt "Grod's love, and life." A reflection of smell evi- 
dently controlled by the sense of ointment in his mind. 

The ghost of "Captain LuA's " name is sufficiently illustrated, and I 
close by a few remarks. 

These mental impressions may occur by willing the impression, as in 
your experiments, and also by that mysterious movement of mind known 
to occur in the dream state. Two minds may produce the images and 
convey the intelligence, or one mind, by personating an idea, as father, 
mother, wife, friend, and adopting it as a force, may telegraph thoughts, 
sounds, smell, touch, taste, or forms. In the opening up of this spirit 



339 A DISCUSSION. 301 

life within ns we shall not only telegraph mentally over the globe, but run 
steamboats and cars by will-force — by faith. Don't arrest me for luna- 
cy. Christ said a grain of faith like a mustard seed, would move main- 
tains into the sea ; did he mean what he said, or was he trifling with us ? 
He told his disciples that they should do greater works than he had 
done Mind is a force above all matter, as Grod's universe attests. 
Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



BRITTAIJ AND RICHMOND'S DISCUSSION. 

NUMBER NINE. 

REMARKABLE CURES BY SPIRITUAL AGENCY. 

Dear Sir : The idea that spirits exist and exert an influence over 
the elements and man, has been entertained by many of the most gifted 
minds in every period of the world. The ancient Hebrews, Grreeks, 
and Eomans, ascribed numerous facts of their experience to the inter- 
position of invisible intelligences. The inspired Scriptures and all 
works of genius are filled with allusions to spirits and the exhibitions of 
their power. The Apostolic fathers and early historians of the church, 
speak of the powers derived from the Spirit-world, and exercised by 
men in the accomplishment of many marvelous works. Plato, who 
reasoned so well for immortality, had no doubt that men were incited 
to both good and evil deeds, by the influence of demons or genii who 
were supposed to be their constant attendants. Hesiod, one of the 
earliest Greek writers, also believed that invisible beings presided over 
the destinies of men, and his views concerning their presence and in- 
fluence within the sphere of human afiairs are expressed in the follow- 
ing lines : 

Aerial spirits, by great Jove designed 
To be on earth the guardians of mankind ; 
Invisible to mortal eyes they go, 
And mark our actions, good or bad, below; 
The immortal spies with watchful care preside. 
And thrice ten thousand round their charges glide. 
They can reward with glory or with gold, 
Such power divine permission bids them hold." 
According to Calmet, Laetantius entertained the idea that there are 
two general classes of demons , celestial and terrestrial, and that the latter 
are the authors of all the wrongs perpetrated on earth. St. Paul al- 
ludes to " the powers of the air," and St. Jerome assures us that, in 
his time, the opinion prevailed among the doctors of the Church that 
the air is peopled with spirits, while many of the fathers believed that 
demons, especially such as were most impure, descended from the more 
ethereal regions of the air and were in close proximity to the earth.* 
I cite these opinions not because I presume that they establish the fad^ 
* See Calmet's Die. Art. Demons ;. Also, remarks on Angels. 



A DISCUSSION. 303 

but to show that our fundamental idea has been entertained for ages 
and earnestly defended by Heathen, Jewish and Christian writers. I 
know not what others may think, but I deem it quite impossible to ac- 
count for the general prevalence of this conception, but upon the sup- 
position that tangible demonstrations of Spiritual agency did often occur. 
The idea certainly found favor under various forms of religion and gov- 
ernment, and with the, most enlightened and polished nations as well as 
with the rude and barbarous. 

So frequent and unmistakable were these examples of Spiritual power 
among the Jews, that the most terrible physical maladies were ascribed 
to the agency of evil spirits, and the expulsion of these, by the exorcism 
of prayer and other devout exercises, formed no unimportant part of 
the labors of the primitive Christian teachers. If the New Testament 
is not altogether fabulous, and the more recent experience of thousands 
wholly deceptive, we are certainly authorized to believe that spirits 
were wont to influence men in the manner here suggested, and that 
they do still continue to indicate their presence by similar effects. I 
desire to remark in this connection that, Christ and his Apostles were 
accustomed to treat this idea of Spiritual agency as if it were founded 
in truth, and everywhere entertained. They sanctioned the popular 
belief in demoniacal possession. It is recorded that thty spoke to the 
ignorant spirits, whom they cast out, and that the spirits ansioe/red^ giv- 
ing various proofs of personal consciousness. It appears, moreover, 
that many of the spiriis that manifested their presence in the time of 
Christ, were so ignorant and stupid as to be incapable of communica- 
ting any intelligence and were, therefore, called "dumb spirits." 
These could neither improve the health of the body nor augment the 
light of the mind — having no light or intelligence in themselves — and 
hence it was desirable to relieve the media from their presence and 
influence. The departure of those spirits, from the persons whom they 
had possessed, appears to have been attended, in some instances at least, 
with frightful convulsions, in which the medium was thrown on the 
ground and left apparently dead. A striking illustration of this class 
is recorded in the ninth chapter of Mark, wherein the medium ''fell on 
the ground, and wallowed, foaming." The disciples made the attempt 
to exorcise the spirit but could not succeed. Jesus said, " Dumb and 
deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. 
And the spirit cried and rent him sore, and came out of him : and 
he was as one dead ; insomuch that many said, ' He is- dead.' But 
Jesus took him by the hand, and he arose." 



304 ERITTAN AND RICHMONB. 

It is abundantly evident that a great variety of Spiritual Manifesta- 
tions (iid occur in the ancient Church, and among the people generally. 
And, while it can not he denied that, many of the phenomena were of 
such a nature as to indicate a ^very low order of intelligence, it must be 
confessed that the Apostles and others presented results of an orderly 
and divine character. Indeed, they claimed to aceotapllBh the expul- 
sion of inferior spirits, by virtue of the higher spiritual aid which was 
vouchsafed to them. Were their claims, in this respect, founded in 
imposture ? and is the idea itself a mere chimera .'' If you answer af- 
firmatively, you not only deny the inspiration of the New Testament 
but yoit, holdly dispute its general reliaiility as a simple history^ in which 
sense even infidel writers, if endowed with ordinary magnanimity, may 
afford to accept it. 

Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, (twelfth chapter,) describes 
the " spiritual gifts " which were possessed and exercised in the prim- 
itive church. The power to perceive spirits, to speak in divers un- 
known languages and to heal the sick, with other remarkable powers, 
are referred to. These gifts were not all possessed by one individual, 
but appear to have been distributed^ doubtless in conformity to the indi- 
vidual peculiarities of the recipients. Thus, according to the Apostle, 
" To one is given the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowl- 
edge, by the same spirit ; to another the gifts of healing ; .... to 
another the working of miracles ; to another prophecy ; to another dis- 
cerning of spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to another the 
interpretation of tongues ;" all of which are represented in some degree 
in the modern phenomena. Such were the peculiar " gifts " denomi- 
nated " Spiritual^''^ and which continued in the church, as ecclesiastical 
historians inform us, for a long time after the last of the Apostles went 
to his rest. That these remarkable powers were exercised in the time 
of Irenaeus, appears from his work entitled " Refutation and Overthrow 
of False Doctrines," in which he says : 

" When a whole church united in much fasting and prayer, the spirit 
has returned to the ex-animated body, and the man was granted to the 
prayers of the saints." .... Those that were truly his [Christ's] dis- 
ciples, receiving grace from him, in his name performed these things for 
the benefit of the rest of men, as every one received the free gift from 
him. Some, indeed, most certainly and truly cast out demons, so that 
frequently those persons themselves that were cleansed from wicked 
spirits believed and were received into the church. Others have the 
knowledge of things to come, as also visions and prophetic communica- 



A DISCUSSION. 305 

tions ; otiicrs heal the sick l»y the imposition of hands, and restore them 

to health As we hear, many of the brethren in the church have 

prophetic gifts, and speak in all tongues through the spirit, and who 
also, bring to light the secret things of men for their benefit, and who 
expound the mysteries of God."* 

Such were the Spiritual agents and their modes of operation, and 
such were the divine gifts comprehended in '' the faith once delivered 
to the saints," and illustrated in the experience of men for more than 
two hundred years, Christ, the Apostles, and the early historians of the 
church being the witnesses. I by no means entertain the idea that the 
physical maladies of men, in any age, have been, generally or frequently, 
superinduced by ultra-mundane agents ; but that the presence and influ- 
ence of disorderly and inharmonious spirits, should be attended with un- 
favorable physical and mental effects, accords as well with our reason, 
as it does with ancient records and modern facts. Indeed, it will be 
readily apprehended that, if spirits really produce the modern phenom- 
ena ascribed to them, they must be able to influence the physical as 
well as the mental functions of men. Especially, may they act on. 
the media^ and perhaps through them on other persons, in such a man- 
ner as to occasion electro-physiological changes, and thus determine the 
pathological states of the system. To say that minds separated from 
the restraints of the earthly body, are competent to produce these 
effects, is to affirm but little comparatively of their powers ; certainly 
not more than is warranted by the authentic histories of former ages, 
and the actual occurrences of the present day. 

The reader is presumed to be so familiar with the cures wrought by 
the Apostles that a citation of particular examples, in this connection, is 
deemed unnecessary. I will, therefore, devote the remaining portion 
of my letter to the presentation of several examples of recent occur- 
rence. The following is related by the Loraine Argus, and the Editor 
vouches for the correctness of the statement : 

Three years ago Leonora, a daughter between fourteen and fifteen years of age, 
a medium, stepped on a common sewing-needle, which penetrated the heel, so far 
as to be out of sight, and which has been the cause of great pain at diflferent 
times since. About seven weeks ago her foot commenced swelling, and it became 
very painful; she has ever since (till last Thursday) been compelled, in order to- 
move about the house, to hop on one foot, and should she happen even to touch 
the affected foot to the floor, she would drop as quick as though she had been 
knocked down with a club, so sensib'y keen was the pain at the least touch. The 

* Eusebius Pamphilus, Eccles. Hist.: page 186. 

20 



30G ERITTAN AND RICJIMOND. 

foot was swollen to almost twice the size of the other, anil to just bend either 
of the toes would cause great pain and suffering. 

On Thursday last she retired to a room, and there being no one present but 
herself, she thought she would like to converse with the '' spirits," something 
she had not done for a long time previous. The first spirit that answered her 
call was her grandfather's, whom she asked the following questions, and received 
the following answers : 

Question — " Can the needle in my foot be found without much dif&culty and 
pain .' " 

Ansvs^er — " No." 

Q. — " Am I to remain a cripple during the whole time allotted to me to remain 
upon this earth, and be obliged to hop about on one foot, and suffer so much 
pain ? " 

A.—" No." 

Q. — " Will it be a long time before I shall be enabled to walk on that foot ? " 

A— "No." 

Q. — " Can I walk now .' " 

A.—" Yes." 

She immediately arose, stood upon one foot, the other hanging down within 
about four inches of the floor, in which position it was, and had been for some 
time past, which caused us to fear that the cords m the leg had become con- 
tracted, and that she never would be enabled to straighten it again. But, 
when she stood up, you can easily imagine her surprise and astonishment when, 
as she says, she felt a pressure encircle her ancle, and, in the twinkling of an 
eye, the foot was brought down in contact with the floor, and with such vio- 
lence as to cause the floor to tremble, which very much startled her, and she 
called aloud, " Mother ! mother ! !" And then walked off, as she formerly did, 
with both feet. The swelling disappeared, and on the following day she put 
on the same sized shoe that she had previously been in the habit ofivearing, 
and walked about the village, making calls and conversing with those friends 
from whom she had been so long separated. 

Some six months since we received a communication from Rev. 
H. H. Hunt, from which the following is an extract : 

In September, 1851, while in Indiana, I went to hear the rappings, when I 
became convinced that there must be a spiritual agency involved in the matter. 
;But my position as a preacher of the gospel, restrained me from giving my senti- 
ments to the public, and I remained silent until January of 1852, when two of 
my daughters became media for the sounds. After investigating the matter, 
and still finding no other solution than the Spiritual theory, I imputed it to the 
Devil, who, appearing as an angel of light, stood ready to deceive the very elect. 
Indeed, I was angry at the sounds ; but as they would not stop, I made this re- 
quest, that the unseen Powers would not make my children victims of Hell, but 
spare them, and try me. 

After retiring, the same night, the spirits paralyzed both my arms, keeping 
them in continual motion until six o'clock in the morning, when the circular 
alphabet was handed me ; and then I learned my duty from good authority. As 
soon as this was made clear, I commenced holding meetings in public; and up 



A DISCUSSION. 307 

to this date my time has been spent lecturing on the subject. While speaking I 
am Spiritualized, or partly so. 

At a circle held at Adrian, the first Saturday in July, the spirits ■wrote: 
" Seek the lame, the halt, and the infirm, and they shall be healed." I then 
remarked to J. M. Reynolds : " It can not be done ; if that is read, away go the 
spirits and the cause together ; for some one will be presented, and not cured." 
Nevertheless the call was read by my colleague, when Mr. Lyons presented him- 
self, stating that his leg had been drawn up by rheumatism four years, and 
was under acute pain at the time Without the exercise of my own volition I 
was thrown into the Spiritual state, and placed before him. I was also made to 

speak by the power of the .spirit / put my hand on him, and he was 

made whole. He dropped his cane and went away rejoicing, fleet as a boy 
of sixteen f [We are informed that Mr. L. was 74 years old.] 

After this, a child, son of D. C. Smith, was very sick. The physician having 
given the most powerful medicine for stopping the fits without effect, the father 
called me in. I seated myself by the boy, and was put in communication with 
him by an unseen agency. Soon the patient showed too clearly that another fit 
was coming on ; but instead of his suffering from the attack, the whole power : 
of the malady fell on me. The agonizing distress, the clenched fist, and con- 
tracted muscle, gave me alarm for my own safety ; but the second thought, that 
I was in the hands of spirits, quieted me ; and I threw off the attack. The hoy 
had no more fits, but got well. 

Last July I was called to visit Mrs. Brownell, near Adrian. She had been 
sick with a weak back, and continual pain in the side. Her doctor said the 
liver was decayed, and she could never regain her health. I was moved by 
the power of spirits to lay my hand on the back of her head, when she said : 
" I feel strange and dizzy." I told her to trust in God, for he was able to re- 
store her to health. She noio is well, doing the work of her family, which she 
lias not done for two years. There are other cases which I might give, if time 
would permit. Yours in Spiritual affinity. H. H. Hunt. 

These results were not accomplished by the faith of Mr. Hunt, for, 
it will be observed, in the first instance he declared emphatically that 
no such cure could be performed. Neither was it the power of his will, 
for the agent, whatever it was, exercised him all one night against his 
will. It was not the faith of those who were made whole, for in one case 
the patient was a child, and the nature of his disease such as to render 
the exercise of faith, at the time, impossible. Is it not evident that 
these examples of healing are the same in nature as many of those re- 
corded in the New Testament } If the spirits did not perform these 
cures, pray tell us what it was that took possession of our Reverend 
friend, and made him a better doctor, in one night, than a medical col- 
lege can make out of average materials in five years ! 

The original statement of which the following is a portion, was attested 
by many persons, including two physician? und two snrgeons. The re- 



308 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

port was published by Dr. Clanny, a physician of extensive esperience, 
who assures us that " many persons holding high rank in the established 
Church, ministers of other denominations, as well as many lay members 
of society, highly respected for learniog and piety, are equally satisfied." 

The patient, named Mary Jobson, was between twelve and thirteen years of 
age ; her parents, respectable people in humble life, and herself an attendant on 
a Sunday-school. She became ill in November, 1839, and was soon afterward 
seized with terrific fits, which continued, at intervals, for eleven weeks. It was 
during this period that the family first observed a strange knocking, which they 
could not account for. It was sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another ; 
and even about the bed, when the girl lay in a quiet sleep, with her hands folded 
outside the clothes. They next heard a strange voice, which told them circum- 
stances they did not know, but which they afterward found to be correct. Then 
there was a noise like the clashing of arms, and such a rumbling that the tenant 
below thought the house was coming down ; footsteps where nobody was to be seen, 
■water falling on the floor, no one knew whence, locked doors apened, and above all, 
sounds of ineffably sweet music. The doctors and the father were suspicious, 
and evei'y precaution was taken, but no solution of the mystery could be found. 
This spirit, however, was a good one, and it preached to them, and gave them a 
great deal of good advice. Many persons went to witness this strange phenom- 
enon, and some were desired to go by the voice, when in their own homes. Thus 
Elizabeth Gauntlett, while attending to some domestic affairs at home, was start- 
led by hearing a voice say, "■ Be thou faithful, and thou shalt see the works of 
thy God, and shalt hear with thine ears !" She cried out, " My God ! what can 
this be !" and presently she saw a large white cloud near her. On the same even- 
ing the voice said to her, " Mary Jobson, one of your scholars is sick ; go and 
see her, and it v?ill be good for you." This person did not know where the child 
lived, but having inquired the address, she went : and at the door she heard the 
same voice bid her go up. On entering the room she heard another voice, soft 
and beautiful, which bade her be faithful, and said, " I am the Virgin Mary." 
This voice promised her a sign at home ; and accordingly, that night, while read- 
ing the Bible, she heard it say, " Jemima, be not afraid ; it is I : if you keep my 
commandments it shall be well with you." When she repeated her visit the same 
things occurred, and she heard the most exquisite music. 

The same sort of phenomena were witnessed by evei^ybody who went — the im- 
moral were rebuked, tha good encouraged. Some were bidden instantly to de- 
part, and were forced to go. The voices of several deceased, persons of the femily 
vrere also heard, and made revelations. 

Once the voice said, " Look up, and you shall see the sun and moon on the 
ceiling !" and immediately there appeared a beautiful representation of these 
bodies in lively colors, viz., green, yellow, and orange. Moreover, these figures 
were permanent ; but the father, v/ho was a long time skeptical, insisted on white- 
■washing them over ; however, thej still remained visible. 

Among other things, the voice said, that though the child appeared to suffer, 
she did not ; that she did not know where her body was; and that her own 
spirit had left it, and another had entered ; and that her body was made a 



A DISCUSSION. 309 

speakirg trumpet. The voice told the family and visiters many things of their 
distant friends, which proved true. 

The girl twice saw a divine form standing by her bedside who spoke to her, 
and Joseph Ragg, one of the persons who had been invited by the voice to go, 
saw a beautiful and heavenly figure come to his bedside about eleven o'clock 8.t 
night, on the 17th of January. It was ia male attire, surroundtd by a radiance ; 
it came a second time on the same night. On each occasion it opened his cur- 
tains and looked at him benignantly, remaining about a quarter of an hour. 
When it went away, the curtains fell back into their former position. 

One of the most remarkable features in this case is the beautiful music which 
was heard by all parties, as well as the family, including the unbelieving father ; 
and indeed it seems to have been, in a great degree, this that converted him at 
last. This music was heard repeatedly during a space of sixteen weeks : some- 
times it was like an organ, but more beautiful ; at others there was singing of 
holy songs, in parts, and the words distinctly heard. The sudden appearance of 
water in the room too was most unaccountable ; for they felt ic, and it was really 
water. When the voice desired that water should be sprinkled, it immediately 
appeared as if sprinkled. At another time, a sign being promised to the skepti- 
cal father, water would suddenly appear on the floor ; this happened " not once, 
but twenty times." 

During the whole course of this affair, the voices told them there was a miracle 
to be wrought on this child; and accordingly on the 22d of June, when she was 
as ill as ever and they were only praying for her death, at five o'clock the voice 
ordered that her clothes should be laid out, and that everybody should leave the 
room except the infant, which was two years and a half old. They obeyed; and 
having been outside the door a quarter of an hour, the voice cried, " Come in !" 
and when they entered, they saw the girl completely dressed and quite well, sit- 
ting in a chair with the infant on her knee, and she had not had an hour's illness 
from that time till the report was published., which was on the 30th of January, 
1841.— ^i^Ait Side of JVature, pp. 405-8. 

Mr. John 0. Wattles, a gentleman of intelligence and a distinguished 
philanthropist, in a letter addressed to D. Gano, E.?q., Cincinnati, Ohio, 
relates an interesting Spiritual experience of which the subjoined extract 
forms a part : 

My brother-in-la « related to me an incident that may be interesting to some. 
A few days before I was there, he was at work in the grove, chopping wood ; a 
young man rode up and inquired ' if his name was Whinery ?' He said " Yes." 
" Wilton Whinery ?" " Yes." " Well, you are the man for me ; my sister has 
been at the point of death more than six hours, and the spirits say 'you can cure 
her.' " Milton said, " I can't do anything ; I never did anything in my life — I 
do not know anything about it." But the young man insisted, and he went — it 
was nine or ten miles. When he got there he lound a house full of peojile in at- 
tendence, exptcting every moment that the young woman would breathe her last, 
and anxiously awaiting hii arrival. When he entered the room, he saw the 
young woman lying in great agony, the blood frothing from the mouth — in a fit, 1 
suppose At this sight he sickened — as he does at the sight of blood — and fell 



310 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

back into a chair. He then became entranced, and said, " In twenty minutes I 
will lay my hand on her head and she ivill recover." He commenced jerking 
severely — as was related to him afterward — and immediately the young woman 
"was relieved ! At the expiration of twenty minutes he aroused, and turning to 
the young woman, asked her how she felt — at the same time laying his hand on 
her head. She answered, " / am well" — and immediately set up in the bed! 
He then went out to supper, and after that, returned to the room, and the young 
woman was up and clothed, and in her right mind. She had been in a partially- 
deranged condition more than a week. She now walked about the room with 
him, and was standing in the door when the physician, who had left her a short 
time before and had come back not expecting to see her alive — rode up. Being 
a disbeliever in all the late " Manifestations, he looked astonished — gazed at her 
a moment, as if disbelieving his own senses, and exclaimed, " Gods ! — No more 
use for doctors !" and rode off. This can be attested by more than forty persons. 

Sucb are some of the marvelous cures, performed without reference 
to ordinary professional modes, or the specific action of remedial agents, 
and I insist that if the alleged office of f-pirits, in the production of these 
results, be denied, we shall seek in vain for a solution of the mystery 
they involve. If you assume that the illness, in the cases here cited, 
was only imaginary, it follows of necessity — provided your assumption 
be well founded — that the M. D.'s, who attended in their professional 
capacity, and thought their patients would surely die, were strangely ig- 
norant of their business. To assert such a questionable proposition, is 
to pour unmerited contempt on the judgment of the faculty. We con- 
fess to a strong suspicion that even Doctors are sometimes fallible, but 
few, we apprehend, are so ignorant of diagnostics as to be unable to dis- 
tinguish het-ween idle fancies and real fits! 

If you are inclined to ascribe the cures to a biological experiment, I 
desire to remind you that, in the case of Mary Jobson, there was no 
person in the room except a child some two or three years old, and t/ie 
child was sleeping at the time. Moreover, in the case of Miss Leonora, no 
one was in the room when the cure was performed. If you claim that 
the father or some other person wrought the cure, biologically, without so 
much as coming into the patient's presence, it will be incumbent on you 
to prove that the individual, to whose agency you may be pleased to ascribe 
her restoration, was capable of producing similar effects on the patient; 
also, that the absent person did act on Leonora, at the time and in the 
w.anner implied. Nor is this all ; the reader will still have a right to in- 
quire ^chy a person possessing such powers should meet and mingle with 
the sufferer for months, and even years, and never afford the slightest 
relief, and at last — strangest of all nameless mysteries ! — how the same 
person could perform one of the most startling and wonderful cures, and, 



A DISCUSSION. 311 

at the same time, be utterly unconscious of any agency in the case! 
The last mentioned example is eminently convincing in its nature. 
None of the friends of the dying girl appear to have had the slightest 
knowledge of the personal qualities, local position, or even the existence 
of Milton Whinery ; nor did the latter know aught of them ; but the 
invisible intelligence gave precise directions, and predicted a definite 
issue. The directions, thus given, proved to be strictly reliable, and 
the promised result was fully realized. All sublunary theories and the 
specious speculations of skeptical philosophers are inadequate to account 
for the facts. Their bare announcement falls on the duU ears of mod- 
ern Materialism like the trumpet-blast of the last judgment, while the 
benignity of the power employed is triumphantly vindicated, by its labor 
of love, in behalf of suffering humanity. 

As we attribute these cures to spirits, we can not rationally be expect- 
ed to control all the conditions on which they depend, so as to reproduce 
the eifects at pleasure ; but yoio insist that the phenomena are purely 
earthly and, with a dash of the pen, seemingly as careless as the stroke 
of a Turkish executioner, you pretend to solve all mysteries and to dis- 
pose ot all reasonable doubts. If then, these and many similar cures 
are wrought by merely human agency, if, as you affirm, all the means 
and conditions are here, and subject to the control of mortals, why not 
occupy the time employed in mere verbal disquisitions, in a practical ex- 
periment, and at once initiate the whole medical fraternity into the 
secret. If you have the slightest faith in your own hypothesis, why not 
furnish the demonstration ? It is the shortest way to decide the whole 
controversy. The interests of science imperiously demand this course, 
and suffering mortals implore your aid with the moving eloquence of 
their accumulated woes. I remain, yours fraternally, 

. S. B. BRITTAN. 



REPLY TO S. B. BHITTAN. 

NUMBER NINE. 

Dear Sir : Your letter on " remarkahk cures " by Spiritual agency 
is before me, and as we approach the close of our long talk I grow anx- 
ious to see the end. Fighting as I am with muUijplied powers I begin 
to fear that all creation and the " rest of mankind " will be down on 
me soon. It would seem that Brittan, Bush, Ormsby, Cory, Capro'n, 
Orton, " C." and last and least poor " Climax," in deep affliction were 
a host against one ; but top of these, above all this, the whole force of 
ghostdom is after me, "Daniel," Ben, Tom, Hogie, Ann, and a throng- 
ing army come in with their wisdom to oppose one poor son of Escula- 
pius; and now I am called on to refute all the whims of Paganism, and 
the follies of Christians, and the beliefs of poets and Calmefs Dic- 
tionary. 

You have all history on your side I freely admit ; no nation has ever 
lived who have not believed in Spiritual visitants from an unseen sphere 
— the Chinese, the Hindoos, the sable Negro by Gambian stream, 
classic Grreece and regal Rome, the Arab hordes and Semitic tribes, 
from whom sprung the " chosen people," the Gloths, the Vandals, the 
Huns, the whole horde of Germanic tribes brought the belief of ghosts, 
witches, genii, fairies, demons, with them from their northern houses. 
You have the belief of all ages to build on, and the most illustrious 
names in history with the Christian church to back up your theory. 
Christ and the Apostles adopted the prevalent belief in spirits and de- 
mons, and their labors to cast these out were abundant. You ask, and 
with reason, can all the world, can Socrates, Pythagoras, Moses, the 
Prophets, and Christ all be wrong in this belief — be ignorant of the 
mistake under which they labored } I reply by asking how it is that all 
these nations, with their kings and wise men remained ignorant of the 
laws of gravitation ; that they never dipped into the laws of mechanics 
as have the modern nations of Europe and America ? Pythagoras is 
said to have understood the laws of planetary motion ; but that knowl- 
edge was lost to the world for centuries, and Moses evidently had a psy- 
chological perception of the geological development of the Earth ; but 
he fell short of anything like a correct theory of geology, or else the 



A DISCUSSION. 313 

world has always been mistaken ia what he said. It is well known that 
Moses's description of the disease sent on the Egyptians is a simple 
transcript of the symptoms of the phgue. That disease is periodic in 
Egypt ; when the Nile subsides and the sun\s rays penetrate the mass of 
earth and slime left on the soil, the plague appears suddenly and disap- 
pears as suddenly as it comes. Did he in turning the Nile into blood 
change the oxygen and hydrogen into absolute hloocl ? Did he treale 
frogs and lice out of nothing 1 Was that rod actually a snake and the 
hand actually leprous } If so, and those facts establish his light to a 
divine authority, then what will you do with the magicians } for be it 
understood they performed all the miracles that Moses did but making 
dust into lice, and causing their rod to eat up Aaron's. Were the 
magicians sent of Grod, also .'' How is it that the Prophets, Christ and 
his Apostles left the world in ignorance of planetary motion, the tele- 
scope, the art of painting ; the force of steam, facts so palpable and yet 
so easy for a Divinity to comprehend, and working such frightful 
changes in existing opinions .' Why, I ask, if God works by special 
providences^ have men been so long left in total darkness of facts so 
necessary to their welfare, their progress, both in science and morals .'' 
Why has it been left to a Copernicus, a Gallileo, a Bacon, a Faust, a 
Newton, a Herschel and a Fulton to unfold the laws of the physical 
universe and set the age ahead a thousand years in its progress. 

Why have none of these great truths been hinted at by the religious 
teachers of the world .? and man left to wade with his sword through 
seas of blood up to a throne of skulls, built on dead men's bones ? And 
suppose that I should set up a plea that Pythagoras was inspired, Soc- 
rates and Plato sent of G-od on a divine mission ; that the great liiihts 
in science were all aided by genii, demons, ghosts and angelic watches .' 
What a blubbering the world would set up over my infidelity. 

No skill in logic can vindicate the " ways ofGod to man" on the theory 
of special providences. It plunges the whole scheme of the universe 
into eternal night, and whelms the soul in darkness and despair. Why, 
if special interposition is the rule, has not the arm of force or might 
been stretched out to save the millions who have perished by violence 
and crime .? If our destiny is within ihs^ then, well may we " work out 
our salvation with fear and trembling." Christ gave us one great 
truth, he organized free discussion. Without guns, powder, staffs, or 
bowie knives, he bid his disciples to go into all the world and preach 
his gospel to every creature. Discuss, proclaim, go unarmed, depend 
on truth, on its almighty power, and rush in the face of the world with 



314 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

your theory, and had not the secular arm crushed this focal point of his 
system by the rack, and dungeons, and death, and whelmed the free 
spirits of the church in a sea of blood, it would long since have cleared 
the earth of kings and queens, of landocracies, popes and cardinals. 
Christ always met the Jews with free discussion, and he always annihi- 
lated their positions. His wily sagacity always circumvented their dis- 
honest double dealing. But while I admit all this, I fully believe that 
he held notions wholly traditionary, and founded on no higher authority 
than the hilief of the age in which he lived. Lactantius believed in 
two classes of devils, and so did Dr. Cotton Mather believe in two sorts 
of witches — black and white witches ; and also that the devils often 
came to hear him preach and were all over the house in the air. He 
put forth in an elaborate sermon his helief that the devils were organ- 
ized very much after the manner of congregational churches, and had 
Sabbaths to keep like the Christians. 

Dr. Watts, Addison, and the Wesleys all believed in witchcraft and 
the power of demons over men. Somehow this popular delusion was 
always opposed by the thinking men of all ages who disputed with its 
bloody excesses ; and unable to explain its marvels, they would deny 
the doctrine of witchcraft and turn it over onto the devil. John Wes- 
ley, more sagacious than this, says that these " opponents of witchcraft 
well know whether Christians do or not — that giving up witchcraft is 
giving up the Bible." I freely admit that Heathen, Jewish, and 
Christian writers in all ages have sustained your " fundamental idea," 
but they were all wrong, and your difficulty in accounting for the prev- 
alenceof theidea vanishes onthe ground that " tangible demonstrations of 
Spiritual agency did often occur." 

This universal belief indicates somethivg most clearly. Either spirits 
do hold such intercourse with men, or some physical and mental phe- 
nomena incident to the whole race has been mistaken by the world — by 
the wise men of all ages for actual spirits. The latter is my position, I 
attack the belief of all ages and all men on this point— spirits can not 
return to this sphere, and I scout the Devil as an imaginary being, and 
men as a set of servile imitators. 

Not only the Jews, but all Heathendom ascribed all physical mala- 
dies to the curses of the gods. According to Homer, when Chrisea, 
the priest, had begged of the Greeks his captive daughters, and was 
refused, he prayed the gods of Paganism, and the whole army was 
cursed by the fury of the gods of Mount Ida. When Paul entered 
Athens he found an altar to the " unknown god." The Greeks had 



A DISCUSSION. 315 

been visited witli a plague and they had prayed to all their gods, and 
they were " legion," but the plague continued to slay, they concluded 
that the pestilence was under the control of some "• unknown god," and 
put up an altar to his worship ; the plague was stayed and he got the 
credit of it. The Apostle seized this and wielded it most skillfully over 
that nest of logical tricksters. Hippocrates used to stay the plague by 
kindling fires through the city, to purify the air ; while in Egypt medi- 
cal writers say that the plague disappears to a day, at the occurrence of 
the summer solstice. The coming of a south wind in plague seasons, 
always brings with it that frightful malady ; while a cold north wind or 
a frost checks it in a single night. Don't the Devil control the wind at 
such times and is he not permitted to play espy with us for the glory of 
Grod and the good of the saints ? Says an eminent divine — " No poor 
soul could have a pair of spectacles till a German stumbled on the fact 
by accident, in spite of the Devil. The world could not have a load- 
stone till a Neapolitan accidentally found one ; and the world could not 
be blest with a printing press till old Faust run the hazard of his life in 
using a few wooden type." 

I admit the historic facts of the New Testament, for its miracles are 
paralelled in almost all ages by similar occurrences, and in my opinion 
it is neither fabulous or the work of priestcraft. The business of cast- 
ing out devils and evil spirits was practiced all over the world in the 
days of Christ. The Jews cast out devils, and travelers assert that in 
Syria every village can boast its magician who has power over evil spir- 
its, and the detail we get of the symptoms of these persons, clearly 
shows them to have been subjects of fits and jerkings of various kinds. 
My knowledge of diseases and their cure, and the various methods by 
which the nervous system may be influenced, teaches me that all these 
feats were nothing more than experiments on the nervous system by 
mental influences. The clay ointment for the eyes ; the command to 
arise ; the assurance that faith would cure them only fised in the mind 
a stand-point of belief. " Thy faith hath made thee whole." Mahomet 
was subject to epileptic fits and fell down in these attacks and " foamed " 
at the mouth, his followers used to wet their own lips with this saliva 
and had similar fits. Mahomet used to receive visits from Gabriel, and 
received his Koran by impression. 

Hildreth and Upham both afiirm that in the trials at Salem and other 
places, the persons affected with witches would fall down and have 
spasms, &c., when brought into the presence of the accused. Hildreth 
states that in the trial of ''' Biddy Goodwin " when they were brought 



316 BRITTAN AND RICHMONB. 

into his presence all the persons were so affected ; fell down and were 
" dumb " — would gaze at the court or accused for a long time with 
staring eyes, and when the affected were permitted to touch the accused 
they were instantly relieved. " Ocular fascination " was actually ad- 
vocated as a means the Devil used to affect them. The lady attacked 
by " Sam Smith," mentioned in a former letter, was struck " dumb," 
her teeth clenched and eyes glaring ; antimony and lobelia cast out the 
spirit. 

Dr. C. S. Stockton of Quiney, Chautaque Co., N. Y., says : " Two 
years ago I was called to see a little Miss, aged ten years, she had gen- 
eral spasms, the extremities and throat mostly affected. Her symptoms 
were cramped limhs^ foaming at thQm.oulIi,ptorple face, diffiadi breathing, 
deglutition, head drawn on one side, cold hands and feet." " The sec- 
ond day another girl was taken ; the following day another ; the fourth 
another, and the fifth two more children came down with the same 
symptoms, till about a dozen became affected, and the school was like 
to be broken up ; teacher and parents alarmed. The Doctor called 
the girls up around him, and assured them in a positive manner that 
there would be no more fits, and sure enough no more occurred The 
fact of little girls being thrown into epileptic fits in a heated school is a 
frequent occurrence, and the work of sympathy in this case is vexy strik- 
ing, and had a cry of witches or deviicraft been set afloat, and the child 
and parents arrested, the child hanged, the parents stoned to death, 
their house fired, and the Doctor on horseback, like the gallant Mather, 
crying oat to the people, a Salem tragedy could have been got up on 
short notice. Or had he seized the child, after warming her feet, and 
commaaded the " deaf and dumb " spirit to come out of her, and the 
twelve other devils in the little giils to be off out of Qaincy, he might 
have been guilty of quite a noted miracle. 

While in Covington, Ky., I was called into the family of Mr. Weth- 
erbe, if I remember the name, to see a sick person. His negro slave 
was deaf, and on a little observation I found he was highly impressive. 
After mesmerizing him I impressed him in a loud voice that he could 
hear, and his hearing returned, perfectly, especially in one ear. My- 
self and the lady experimented with him for two hours. He heard a. 
low voice across the room, with his back turned toward us, and the 
family declared that he had not heard as well for years. He was al- 
most useless as a servant, and the family seemed pleased that " Sbel- 
ton," as they called him, could again hear voices. The impression 
lasted about twelve hours, and disappeared. I again renewed it, and 



A DISCUSSION. 317 

his hearing again returned — but lasted not quite as long as before. I 
left the place, and how he prospered I have never learned. 

Dr. Humphrey, an eclectic physician, was treating disease in Austin- 
burgh, in the very town where "Ann Merrick," after spending a night 
with the "Captain " and Mr. Snow, sung Yankee Doodle, and ascended 
up into glory, crying as she went " he ! he ! ha ! ha !" probably, in this 
very town Dr. Humphrey biologized a Miss Sophrouia VVilliams — a 
young lady who had ruined her eyes by hard study. She had seen but 
little xbr years — so she and her friends say, and I presume truly — and 
presented to her & funeral scene — a dead friend, a coffin. He produced 
this spectral illusion, or reflection, before her eyes ; she gazed into the 
coffin intently, and seemed deeply affected and strange, when he re- 
moved the illusion from her mind, saying, " All right — you can see." 
She absolutely could see, and her health has much improved ; her sight 
remains perfect 

This feat in biology poured the vital currents of the brain over the 
optic nerves and invigorated them. I have spoken with her frequently 
on the subject, and I presume will affirm the facts, if you de&ire her to 
do so. Was this a miracle, or not } 

The powers of mesmerism and biological influence over the deranged 
nervous system is almost limitless. On a good biological subject you 
may work the cure of any nervous malady. Sight is sometimes sud- 
denly restored by drawing a current of electricity through the optic 
nerves ; it suddenly rouses them from a partial paralysis. The power 
of one mind over another, when in rapport with that mind, is soon to 
be better understood. 

Dr. S. S. Foster, of Wooster, tells me that, when a clergyman, he 
used to pray with a young lady who was dying with the consumption. 
She always desired to hold his hand — and, to the astonishment of all, 
she recovered. Thought stimulated his brain, and his hand and voice 
conveyed the life-fluid from his body to hers. It was prayng, strictly 
and philosphically speaking. 

Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, was called to see a lady, given up to die. 
On entering the room, he recognized an old playmate, with whom he 
used to visit an eagle's nest among the rocks. The thought rushed 
suddenly over the Doctor's mind, and he exclaimed, " The eagle's nest !" 
She smiled, extended her hand, and from that hour began to recover. 
A mental impube- 

Dr. Cleveland, a young man, poor, but ardent, settled, many years 
since, in Harpersfield, N. Y. He was " beating the bush" fjr busi- 



318 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

ness, and, uncalled for, entered a house "where the medical wisdom of 
the place was assembled to see a lady die — she was given up. The 
Doctor had nothing to lose, and stoutly affirmed he could cure her. He 
caught the old lady's sympathies, and whispered in the girl's ear " I 
want you for a wife." This was enough. The girl was an only daugh- 
ter, and had money — and of course was pretty. She recovered, and 
was a bride in six weeks. What young lady would not give up dying 
to marry one of the " learned faculty." 

I add a few facts, for my friends l&ray and Hallock. The power of 
mind over the nerves, and all nervous' disorders, is known to all physi- 
cians. Homeopaths have numerous chances to prove this fact : 

I once administered a pellet of Nux 30 dilution to a patient — she 
wanted some physic. I assured her that would be the effect of it. The 
next morning the result followed the impression. I gave a young lady 
a powder, te take at night for chlorosis — and impressed her mind deep- 
ly with the desired result. She forgot to take the medicine, but the 
result followed next morning. 

Sir Benjamin Brodie was called to consult in the case of a young 
woman, confined for months to her bed with loss of the use of her lower 
limbs. He ordered her to be placed on the floor, and assured her she 
could walk, and she did walk. These persons grow fat when they eat 
but little, and in some cases they devour enormous quantities of food. 
This one lived on chickens, and devoured them by dozens. 

Dr. Bright had a similar case, and substituted hread 'pills for the 
medicine she had been taking ; they had the same sootkivg effect. His 
visits lengthened in interval, and one morning, under a '' deep religious 
impression," the patient suddenly recovered. 

Dr. Watson, of London, tells a similar story, of a lady whose limbs 
were contracted and paralytic. Some enthusiastic preacher made her 
believethat, on a certain day^ if she prayed with a strong faith, she would 
recover. She did so, and recovered. 

These nervous hysteric cases become local, and affect the joints and 
spine, and often recover under some strong emotion of fright, a fall, or 
great terror. When the joints are affected, many patients declare that 
they felt a sensation as though something had snapped, or given way, 
just before the recovery occurs, under these emotions. 

Mr. C. Catlin, son of a Methodist preacher, from his boyhood was 
much given to faith. At twenty years of age he retired to the wilder- 
ness and fasted forty days. He returned a skeleton to his family ; on 
the succeeding Sabbath he poured out his vision upon the people, 



A DISCUSSION. 319 

mounted in the end of a wagon. His revelation frightened the people 
of Otsego County, over a large region. The earth was not destroyed, 
as he predicted. He always keeps by him a vial of " holy oil " to 
anoint the patient ; and I have known him to travel ten miles to anoint 
and pray over and lay hands on a sick female. Some sudden recover- 
ies have taken place under his unctions. Of himself he relates that, 
after moving to Michigan, he often failed with ague and fever. " Doc- 
tor," said he, " it neither cares for medicine, prayers, oil, or faith." 
This man was severely attacked with lung fever ; it left him with a hard 
cough and frothy expectoration. Remedies failed, and he took himself 
to prayer. First he began to sweat, then a " sudden stream of bril- 
liant light rushed from his brain over his lungs, completely lighting up 
his chest with a brilliant flame " ; he arose well, praising God, and 
shouting with joy. 

This man was wholly veracious, and always devotional ; went to sleep 
praying, and awoke shouting praises. 

"Again, great God, the rising sun 
Salutes my waking eyes," 

was always on his tongue when the sun rose. He always contended for 
the right of the church to all the miraculous powers of Christ and the 
Apostles. 

A Mrs. Johnson, offended at my prescription, sent for other medi- 
cine. A powder of sugar was given ; she recovered rapidly. I have 
uniformly noticed that the more assurance you give a nervous patient, 
the quicker they get well, if they desire to get well at all. Some love to 
be doctored so well that they will remain sick for months, in spite of you, 
pleased with the kind words and sweet pills. A lady with passive anu- 
rism of the heart was taking sugar-coated pillets and water, to quiet 
her mind. By mistake the number was doubled, and she instantly 
grew worse — on sugar and water ! 

Mr. Quain, of London, says a person who had long witnessed the 
sufferings of a friend from stricture of the esophagus, was so impressed 
he took the disease and died of it. Deleuse states a similar fact, of a 
young lady who was under mesmeric influence ; her operator took the 
disease and died. A French physician relates, that a nun in a convent 
was seized with a fit of mewing, like a cat, and soon the whole sister- 
hood fell to mewing for hours every day at a certain hour. That cat- 
wauling continued till they were threatened with soldiers and beating 
with rods, and they quit. 

Cardan states that a nun took a fit of bitina; other nans — ail the sis- 



320 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 



terhood — from nunnery to nunnerj-j throughout Europe. Backbiting is 
often a serious epidemic. 

Wienpold, a G-erman, cut off the head of a cat, and when the arterial 
pulsation ceased, removed the spinal marrow and filled the cavity with 
a compound of m^ercury, silver and zinc — pulsation returned, and the 
body made various movements. He removed the brain and spine of 
another cat, and filled the skull with the same mixture ; life was re- 
stored ; the cat lifted its head, opened and shut its eyes, stared fixedly, 
tried to walk, fell, and tried to raise itself on its legs. The circulation 
went on twenty minutes — gastric juice was abundantly secreted — it fell 
down and was motionless. — {Lancet^ Sept. 1843. 

These experiments with the cats and galvanism exciting motion in 
the dead body go far to prove that the will excites electric action in 
life and motion. If, then, another mind comes in contact with this 
mental media in another body, it may impel it to any point, or the per- 
son's own mind directed to the part may work the same influence. The 
person in fits, the insane, the excited, who act involuntarily, show vastly 
greater force than the voluntary act of common persons. Bring out 
fully this psychological power, and put us in contact with physical or 
imponderable matter, and the spirit is an over match for all the ordina- 
ry forces of the human organization. Mental force over disease, when 
once brought out, will far transcend the power of all remedies. 

These mental dynamic influences are little understood, and I remark 
that analogy seems to point to nervous circidation — the counterpart and 
antagonism of the circulation of the blood. The arterial system would 
seem to be positive to the venous, and in fact the two brains, the two 
sets of membranes — mucous and serous — the double coats of these and 
all the vessels, the two-fold character of the blood — all point to a dual 
movement and arrangement of our life-forces ; and that such a circula- 
tion of the nerve-aura, or the blood of the nerves, occurs between the 
ganglionic system and the nerves, is quite probable, and the constant 
relation of positive and negative seems to be maintained. The gray 
and white substance of the brain — the pia and duramater — the coverings 
of the brain seem also to point to a dual movement, in the life-forces of 
the nerves. This nervous circulation plays at right angles in the base 
of the brain where nerves decussate, apparently putting the two parts 
of the brain e.n rafport. Prof. Buchanan parted these currents by a 
movement of the hand, and the patient lost her continuity of body and 
mind. Had the Doctor pushed his movement he would, I think, have 
induced shejp^ by setting the currents to moving in a circle instead of 



A DISCUSSION. 321 

crossing at rigLt angles, which, in my opinion, brings our interior an 
exterior life en rapport. 

A congestion of this nerve-fluid, or a loss of equilibrium between its 
two manifestations in any part of the body, induces the endless and 
strange manifestation of nervous disorders. This fluid being under the 
control of will, when two minds are e.n rapport, as in mesmerism, biolo- 
gy, or sympathy, may be instantly regulated by mental action, or the 
two forces of the human mind may act and react and induce an equili- 
brium, or health. 

I have have only room to remark that the cases in your letter of the 
girl's foot and needle, the contracted rheumatic limbs, etc., are all ex- 
plained by this theory and the facts I have given ; indeed, your facts 
hardly amount, in my mind, to a respectable mystery, much less a mir- 
acle — as miracles are understood. 

Baron Von Reichenbach threw a spectrum on a wall, a senstive pa- 
tient at fifteen feet holding a copper wire; as it was moved from tint to tint 
over the colors, without her knowledge, it produced constant and uni- 
form results. Yellow and green produced a ''sunny, refressing cool- 
ness." The Dancers, of Grermany, detested red, while the Italian tar- 
antula Dancers delighted in it. Some preferred yellow, some black, 
while others were enraptured with green or blue, and at sight of either 
would throw themselves into the sea. They would rush toward their 
favorite color, gaze at it, kiss it, caress it with the intense ardor ot 
lovers, tears flowed, and enraptured language flowed from their lips, 
completely — says Hecker — overwhelmed with the inebriating impres- 
sion of their favorite color. — (Moore's Body and Mind.) 

This would seem incredible, but when we study more fully the influ- 
ence of mind and imponderables, colors and sounds, on the physical 
body, we shall be both better and wiser. Did you notice how perfectly 
drunk " Ole Bull " made Mrs. L. M. Child, fiddling Yankee Doodle .? 
She was as much intoxicated as were Wise and Petin with a draught of 
Grod's pure ether that floats clear above the clouds, sparkling like the 
river of life gushing from the white throne of Deity. 

The power of music over disease is known to the medical world, and 
can be applied in all nervous cases. Sir W. Jones states, that while a 
lutenist was playing before a large company, near Schiraz, the nightin- 
gales vied with him in song, till the j fell from the branches in a trance,. 
from which a change in the music would rouse them. The power or 
music over serpents is proverbial, and the negroes catch lizards by 
whistling to them. Lunatics are often cured by music, and Mozart was, 

21 



322 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

SO sensitive as to turn pale at the sound of a trumpet, and became con- 
vulsed with a harsh discord. Democritus charmed away many diseases 
by a flute, and Asclepiades cured Sciatica with the obstreperous notes 
of a trumpet, when the part trembled in sympathy with the sound — 
(Moore's Body, &c.) St. Vitus's dance, the bite of the tarantula, and 
the religious dancers, were all cured by music. Mozart, I believe, in 
executing one of his sublime pieces, so enchanted his audience that 
they rose and rushed toward the altar, and seventeen became perma- 
nently insane. Awkward peasants, under the dancing malady, moved 
with the greatest elegance, and their rapture of mind only found relief 
in dancing. Bourdaloue became so excited by writing his eloquent 
sermons that his behavior was very uncanonical. He fiddled and danced 
in the cathedral like a madman. The poor Swiss soldier on hearing the 
stiring notes of the Marseilles Hymn, that reminds him of his native 
home — its green vales and wild mountains — pines and dies. The door- 
keeper of the House of Representatives fell dead on hearing of a victo- 
ry of the Americans over the English. Joy. 

A gentleman in Cleveland, in the last stages of cholera, had taken 
in a few hours a large quantity of brandy ; more was offered him, and 
he refused it, remarking that if he died he wished to appear sober at 
at the judgment. A sudden fit of laughter convulsed the patient and 
company. He began to recover from that hour. Mirth. 

Lewis Brabant had failed in his suit to a rich heiress. Her father 
died. He visited the widow, and in open daylight they heard the voice 
of the father, bewailing his misery in purgatory in consequence of his 
refusal to give his daughter to Brabant — " Give my daughter to Lewis 
Brahant ; he is rick and worthy " — and he might have added, a " gen- 
tleman and a scholar." The old woman yielded — but B. must raise 
the wind, for he was poor. He visited a rich banker, named Cornu — 
turned the talk on ghosts and death and hell — when a voice proclaimed, 
in the tones of the banker's dead father, " Grive Brabant ten thousand 
■crowns to redeem Christians from Turkish captivity." The old usurer 
•was confounded — and next day took Brabant into the open field, where 
no collusion could occur — the voice again came, in the name of his 
father, and the voices of all his dead friends, joined with all the saints 
of the calendar, urged the miser to " fork over." He did so ; B. mar- 
ried his mistress ; the story got out, and the old banker took to bed 
and died of his chagrin and loss. 

Your patient got well — but mine died ; and I might as well claim 
Tthat spirits killed Cornu, as that they cured your girl, narrated by Mrs. 



A DISCUSSION. 323 

Crowe. The voices heard by individuals at a distance, are similar to 
the sounds produced at a distance by Mrs. Hauf, told by Kerner. 

A patient of Dr. Grregory used to be visited by a set of dancing spir- 
its, dressed in green ; they also sung and talked ; but where did they 
get their green clothes, and voices. Delirium tremens. 

But you say all your cases are facts without the consciousness of the 
subject. These voices are mental reflections. That celestial figure in 
" male attire," and the "virgin Mary," are referable to the same law ; 
and the " organ " voice, and the songs, all come under the same psy- 
chological law. Insanity, dreaming, somnambulism, all clearly demon- 
strate that all the faculties of body and powers of mind have an uncon- 
scious and involuntary manifestation. The " image of the sun and 
moon on the wall," is among the most mysterious of all these phenom- 
ena, to my mind. Mr. Willets mentions a similar ease, where the im- 
age remained on the wall for six weeks, and could not be eflFaced. I 
can only suggest that the mental force of the medium altered the chem- 
ical relations of the matter of the wall and traced the figures — in this 
way, as your ghost decomposed " watery vapor " to make lights out of — 
or, may not those vivid impressions be on the retina, in fact, as in the 
case of Carsten Niebuhr, mentioned in my last .? I know of no reason 
why the Church to-day may not enjoy all the gifts of the early Chris- 
tians, if they will bring out the interior life — the soul element in man — 
but she has lost her faith, and is merely performing dry experiments on 
the old Adam. Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



BEITTAlf A2fD EICHMOEB'S DISCUSSION. 

NUMBER TEN. 

A BRIEF RECAPITULATION AND REVIEW. 

Dear Sir : Three letters <vill complete my present series, and I deem 
it unnecessary to continue the classification of phenomena, however 
pleasing and instructive the task might be under other circumstances. 
Those who will carefully consider the facts already oflfered, and the 
conclusions to which they logically tend, will perceive the utter inade- 
quacy of all known material laws to account for their occurrence. To 
allege that they depend on some unknown laws of matter, or of mind 
in its corporeal relations, is to presume that nature and the human fac- 
ulties have recently revised and corrected their laws, or that the old 
statutes are now administered with far greater fidelity than formerly. 
But I am constrained to say, that the present mode of treating the 
subject renders the discussion less interesting and profitable than I had 
expected, and that the particular reasons for this opinion are too obvi- 
ous to require much elucidation. Before our public correspondence 
was commenced, I signified in terms that could not be misapprehended, 
that I had neither time nor space to spend in an aimless controversy, 
and that, if the subject was to be canvassed at all in these columns, it 
was desirable that it should be done in a respectful, candid and logical 
manner. Has it been thus treated in the discussion which is now draw- 
ing to a close ? Our readers will consider this question while I briefly 
review your course from the beginning. 

In the first part of the discussion, during which you had the lead, I 
endeavored to follow in a careful examination of your facts, and by an 
impartial inquiry'- into the nature and capacity of the various agents to 
which you were pleased to ascribe them.. Many instances might be 
referred to wherein your facts, though of questionable authenticity and 
sustaining but a very remote relation to the subject, were considered 
respectfully, and if, indeed, my letters present any apparent exceptions 
to this rule, they are confined to those cases in which your alleged facts 
are utterly incongruous, and your pretended explanations intrinsically 
contradictory and absurd. In such cases it is as much impossible for a 
rational man to be deeply serious, as it is for a real wit to laugh at 



A DISCUSSION. 325 

coarseness and vulgarity. It was never my object to divert the read- 
er's attention from the facts cited in support of your divers hypotheses. 
They were not deemed so formidable, except in number, as to render it 
necessary, on my part, to send down a whole avalanche of other facts — 
materials, crude, doubtful, and irrelevant — to conceal the real issue. 
On the contrary, whenever it has been possible to perceive any connec- 
tion between your facts and their alleged causes, both have been seri- 
ously entertained and discussed in a candid and philosophical spirit. 

That the reader may be able to perceive at a glance what has been 
advocated in the course of this controversy, I propose to advert very 
briefly to your several epistles with a view to ascertain, if that be possi- 
ble, what is the predominant idea in each. In pursuance of this pur- 
pose I will now go back to the beginning and pass hastily over your 
first course of twelve letters and my replies. 

1. Your introductory epistle was devoted to what you were pleased 
to term Spirit-imitations, and after discussing the manifestations by 
writing, through Mr. Fowler, you arrived at a definite conclusion which 
was thus expressed : " The ivhoU is the result of the imitative mechanic 
power of the biedium " j you were not quite certain whether that power 
was consciously or unconsciously exercised. 

In my reply, I endeavored — with what success others must judge — to 
disprove this assumption, by presenting the facts in the case duly au- 
thenticated. 

2. In your second communication the same subject was continued, 
but it was urged that the Spiritual media are Mologized, which was trans- 
ferring " the imitative mechanic power " from the medium to some ope- 
rator, to whose will he was supposed to be subjected. The principal 
part of the letter was devoted to a disquisition on the nature of biologi- 
cal experiments, and at the conclusion you cited, as a suitable illustra- 
tion, the case of an English gentleman who was occasionally subject to 
a strange species of hallucination. It certainly appears to have been 
your object throughout to prove that, the manifestations do not occtor 
objectively, and that the parties who certify to the contrary are under 
biological control or are otherwise hallucinated. If this was not the 
design and import of your second letter, I am wholly unable to perceive 
its relation to the general subject, and your examples of incidental hal- 
lucination are obviously unsuitable and meaningless. 

The reply, which was intended to exhibit the palpable distinctions 
between the biological experiments and the Spiritual Manifestations, may 
be thus briefly comprehended : 1 . In the ' biological ' experiments 



326 



BRITTAK AND RICHMOND. 



there is a visible human operator, to the action of whose mind every 
physiological change, mental impression, acd mechanical movement, can 
be directly referred. In the Spiritual Manifestations, no human opera- 
tor can be found, or demonstrated to exist. 2. In biology, the phe- 
nomena occur in harmony with the will or desire of the operator, and in 
Conjunction with certain manipulations. But the illustrations of the 
Spiritual presence and power, often occur in oppositio7i to an earnest de- 
sire ; they resist the most vigorov.s effort of the will, and are not depend- 
ent on any process, similar to the one described in Dr. Richmond''s let- 
ter, as necessary to induce the biological results. 3. Only men 
and womem are found to yield to the experiments in biology, while, in 
the Spiritual Phenomena, chairs and tables are among the most impres- 
sible subjects. 

3. Your third letter was also on the " Spirit- imitations." It opened 
with an abrupt exordium on the superior skill of the ancients in panto- 
mimic representations, and we were left to infer, if we were so disposed, 
that the modern spiritual phenomena only indicate the revival of the 
taste for this species of amusement. But you seem to have been con- 
scious that pantomime and biology might not enable you to account sat- 
isfactorily for all cases, and, accordingly, the hypothesis was modified 
by the introduction of insanity, somnambulism, drunkenness, and the 
influence of love and poetic temperaments, all of which were honored 
•with a place among the principles of your philosophy, and installed with 
the authors of your faith. 

In reply I endeavored to show the inconsistency of supposing that so 
many persons, among all classes in society, had all at once turned actors, 
and the still greater absurdity of presuming that such a disposition on 
the part of the living mediums, admitting it to exist, could be made to 
account for the movements of inanimate objects. Respecting the agency 
of somnambulism, I accepted what you assumed, namely, that this class 
of media are in an abnormal state, and my argument for which I was, 
at least in part, indebted to yourself for the premises, is embraced in 
the following brief syllogism : 1. Somnambulic media can only imitate 
or personate those with whom they are en rapport. 2. Such media do 
personate the dead, who are wholly unknown or utterly forgotten, and 
with the utmost fidelity. 3. Therefore, the somnambulic media must 
be, as they positively affirm, en rapport with departed spirits. The re- 
lations of insanity and drunkenness to the subject could not be perceived, 
and they were accordingly sent back to you, the former to be doctored 
and the latter to get sober. 



A DISCUSSION. 327 

4. The succeeding letter in your series was a studied effort to prove 
that the facts, then under discussion, had their origin in deliberate im- 
posture. You had at length arrived at the conclusion that, " the imi- 
tative mechanic power of the medium " was consciously exercised, and 
might be presumed to consist in " tricks that would make angels weep." 

My fourth reply was designed, in a general way, to show that this 
assumption was intrinsically more absurd and less amiable than those 
that preceded it. Its antagonism to the facts did not require any fur- 
ther illustration. 

5. Your number five consists of a dissertation on the relations of heat 
and mind to what is termed physical force, and especially to the motion 
of fluids. Then to illustrate the Spiritual-physical manifestations, you 
referred to genuine natural phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanic 
eruptions, thunder storms, etc. It was thus virtually conceded that the 
so-called manifestations are not mere biological fancies, insane illusions, 
or phantoms engendered by delirium tremens^ but actual occurrences ; for, 
otherwise, it would be extremely preposterous to select such real phe- 
nomena to illustrate the manifestations. 

The answer to the foregoing consisted chiefly in strictures on Dr. 
Richmond's philosophy of the relations of heat and motion in fluids. 

6. In your sixth letter you talked in vague and general terms of 
" ether fluid," " nerve-aura," " od-force," the philosophy of sound, 
together with the discoveries of Reichenbach, Buchanan, Newton and 
Mesmer, and closed without making any point. In this letter, how- 
e'ver, you did make several assertions, among which were the following : 
1. " Electricity is the only agent in Nature, known to man, that will 
produce muscular motion when brought in contact with a body from 
which life is extinct." 2. " The od-force of Reichenbach comes at 
once to our aid in the 'modern mysteries.' . . . The human will hav- 
ing control over it as easily grasps and impels it, when chairs and tables 
have been charged with it, as when a muscle or a nerve has been charged 
with it. 

For the original argument in the negative I must refer the reader to 
my letter while I off"er some additional suggestions. What is said of 
electricity, as applied to dead bodies, would doubtless as well apply to 
living ones. I apprehend that the agent of all muscular motion is elec- 
trical, but the assumption that od-force can be grasped by the mind and 
made the agent in producing muscular action, and the instrument 
whereby inanimate objects are moved, is manifestly without foundation 
in truth. When, in the course of this discussion, you have found any- 



328 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

thing that could not be explained or comprehended, you have, for the 
most part, pursued the course adopted by the boy at school, who, for 
the sake of convenience in reading, called all the hard words Moses ! 
Od-force ! Od-force ! Od-force ! has been repeated with emphasis in 
proportion to the obscurity of the point under discussion, until all our 
ideas of the subject were likely to be lost in this forced and forcible use 
of the terms. 

By this time it may be interesting to those who are not familiar with 
the Baron's discoveries to learn that this od-force, of which my cores- 
pondent has said so much, consists in the luminous emanations which 
soranambules, and other persons of acute sensation, perceive around 
the poles of magnets, the bodies of human beings and several other 
objects. It appears like a pale auroral illumination, proceeding from 
and playing over the surface of the body, and can only be seen in dark 
rooms or in the absence of a stronger light. This flame like aura, which 
is invisible except to highly sensitive persons, so far from " pumping " 
and " throwing corn," •' cartridge-boxes " and muskets, in Ohio, and 
hurling chairs, tables, and other ponderable objects everywhere else, is so 
gradual, gentle and noiseless, in all its movements that it would not 
injure a fly, should he chance to alight in the midst of the impalpable 
current. If the odic emanations from a single human form could dis- 
turb heavy bodies as you allege, a mass meeting would nearly sufiice to 
produce an earthquake. No ordinary edifice would resist its action for 
a single hour. Now so far from this being the case, the od evolved 
from a thousand living bodies would develop no more physical force, as 
exhibited in the mysterious movements of lifeless things, than the inseh- 
sible perspiration from the same bodies. Such is the testimony of our 
experience, and the record of the Baron's experiments contains nothing 
to the contrary. 

7. In your seventh letter you continued to discourse obscurelj on 
the same general topics. A ludicrous explanation of a fact, previously 
cited as having occurred in the Shetland Isles, was given ; and you also 
instanced the remarkable eff"ects produced by electrical eels, which were 
said to be " physical manifestations almost equal to those of the rap- 
pers." From all this we were of course expected to infer that a gym- 
7iotus would be a good medium, for the great variety of phenomena 
which are believed by thousands to be revelations of spiritual intelligence 
and power. Then followed a labored eifort to prove that all vital phe- 
nomena are, in some way, dependent on electrical forces, which was 
never questioned by me at any time. In this letter also you virtually 



A DISCUSSION. 



329 



admitted the genuineness of the so-called Spiritual Manifestations, by 
comparing them with natural phenomena which no one pretends to 
dispute. 

In my reply I had occasion to observe that, huTOan beings, unlike 
electrical eels, have no power to discharge the electricity of their bodies 
in a disrtijptive manner ; in other words, so as to occasion a concussion, 
or to communicate a shock, and that, for this reason, neither the sounds 
nor other physical effects can be ascribed to any such voluntary agency 
on the part of men. 

8. Your eighth letter is filled with wonders. The remarkable phys- 
ical phenomena witnessed by the soldier in the castle at Silesia, are 
ascribed to " the magnetic condition of Kern," " the decomposition of 
a body in the cellar," "vacuum," &c. You nezt instance the pump- 
ing manifestation in Ohio, which is thus explained : 

" The od-force of this magnetic boy passed from the hand to the water below 
— it being of the nature of light, and moving about 200,000 times as fast as air — 
its sudden passage through the air to the water below, •would move the air up-, 
ward and form a vacuum." 

This explanation is about as clear as some things which are admitted 
to be very obscure. If od-force as it descends displaces the air, Aom 
does it get down at all, seeing it is so much lighter than the atmosphere .? 
Has it so much more voluntary power than you are willing to ascribe to 
the conscious soul, that it can thus not only remain near the surface of 
the earth, but even dive into deep wells, regardless of all material grav- 
itation, moving in its wondrous descent 200,000 as fast as air ! And 
is the spirit in God's own image such a clumsy creature that it can not 
do what od-force can accomplish with so much ease .'' You say that it 
is, and that it can not ; and yet we must not so much as intimate that 
your philosophy, which thus attributes to dead matter the powers it de- 
nies to living spirits, is essentially materialistic. Moreover, if od-force 
is of the nature of light, and forms a vacuiim as it descends, why does 
not the light of the sun also displace the air at the surface of the earth 
and produce a vacuum which would be instantly fatal to all animal life .'' 
But why argue against such absurdities, while those who assert them 
will not reason, and those who believe them, can not. 

That our readers may form a just estimate of the fidelity with which 

you represent the Baron's facts and philosophy, I will here quote three 

lines from his most valuable book, which should stand in j iixtaposition 

with the three liues just cited from your eighth letter. The following 

is from " the Dynamics of Magnetism, &c."; page 236 : 



_ 330 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

" The transmission of Ocl in the best conductors, as in metalic 'wires, goes on 
slowly — twenty to forty seconds are required for a wire fifty yards long: Elec- 
tricity traverses a million times longer space in immeasurably shorter time." 

From this it will be perceived that, the Baron's od-force is a very 
slow kind. It moves along at a snaiPs pace, requiring a minute or more 
to go one hundred jards, while the same agent, after being employed 
in the service of Dr. Richmond, and undergoing a suitable discipline in 
Ohio, manages to get over the ground at the rate of some 192,000 miles 
in one second ! 

9. In the ninth number of your affirmative series it was confidently 
assumed that, the media are all in an abnormal condition, and the letter 
was chiefly confined to the elaboration of your views respectinp- their 
general temperaments. In the same connection you presented a brief 
analysis of the physical and mental peculiarities of a number of media, 
with a view to mate it apparent that, all persons of this class are nerv- 
ously excitable, hysterical, epileptic, or otherwise of unsound health. 

The reply consisted of a refutation of the assumption that the media 
are all in an abnormal state, and particular examples were cited to prove 
that men of the most vigorous health, sound minds, and powerful organ- 
izations, not unfrequently belong to this class. 

10. The new things, contained in your tenth letter, do not seem to 
me of sufficient importance to warrant any recapitulation. All that is 
relevant to the question has been more forcibly expressed in other epis- 
tles. Notwithstanding the great length of the latter it does not indicate, 
so far as I am able to judge, any definite purpose. 

The reply controverts what you assume concernmg mental magnetism, 
odic attraction, and the alleged possibility of creating a vacuum by 
walking through a room. These assumptions are believed to have been 
■exploded by comparing them with what is known of the nature of at- 
mospheric pressure and the principles of magnetic attraction. 

11. In the eleventh number of your series you gravely contended 
that a bed and bedstead at High Rock were raised into the air by od- 
force and that the vibrations occasioned by singing an Irish ballad " kept 
them in motion." It is especially worthy of observation that you make 
the miosic instead of the mind the mysterious motor. The following 
can express nothing else : " The vibrations of this fluid to music shows 
it to be controlled by the notes of the singa- " — the italicising is your 
own — and you thereupon exclaim, " My victory in this n;atter ,is to be 
too easy." Now Doctor, if it must be so, I beg you will spare our feel- 
ings and permit us the pleasure of celebrating the magnanimity which 



A DISCUSSION. 331 

should characterize your triumph. Seriously, your victory must indeed 
be easy if it can be achieved by such pointless weapons as are here 
brought into the service. I greatly suspect that this mode of treating a 
grave question indicates a sort of logical prolapsus, which, in its present 
chronic form, is not likely to yield to ordinary treatment. 

As I am chiefly interested, at least on the present occasion, in pre- 
senting a summary statement of the different views advocated by you, in 
the course of this correspondence, I shall not occupy my limited space 
by a recapitulation of any remarks contained in my reply, but will thank 
the reader, who may wish to refresh his memory, if he will refer at 
once to the original letter. 

12. In the concluding part of your argument in the affirmative, (?) 
you assume — as usual, without proof and against facts — that the mani- 
festations are a sort of epidemic ; not however abnormal, but occurring 
strictly according to law ; not governed by the human will, whether 
exercised consciously or otherwise, but electric and spontaneous ; not 
odic but periodic. You make them depend on the positive state of the 
atmosphere, and insist at length that they are controlled by the same 
general causes that operate in the production of earthquakes, volcanic 
eruptions, deficient vegetation, potato rot, chills and fever, pestilences, 
national convulsions, &c., &a. The curiosity of this effort is my excuse 
for the repetition of the following passage : 

" The positive state of this atmospheric influence, which produces this epidemic 
magnetic state, acts mostly on women and children ; the negative state, which 
produces an epidemic putrefactive state of the human system, acts mostly on 
robust men. The negative state acts mostly on the positive or male race ; the 
positive state acts mostly on women and children — the negative part of the race. 
The return of both states is periodic, and connected with earthquakes and 
volcanic eruptions and epidemic plagues ajid fevers. The earth, during the 
negative or sickly atmosphere, produces in great abundance ; vegetation is rank, 
but man fails from the earth ; while the positive state, ot spirit-rapping periods 
exist, vegetation is less thrifty, sickly — potato-rot becomes universal. These 
periods are seen on a large scale to be controlled by tens, and the grand circles 
seem to be centuries, half- centuries, and so ranging down to ten again." 

To prove that the events referred to follow the order indicated, oc- 
curring at intervals of ten years, &c., our attention is next invited to 
a great number of facts cited from history. You record, I think with 
commendable accuracy, the dates of the principal plagues, earthquakes, 
volcanic eruptions, etc., but I find, on examination, that your 
figures entirely demolish your hypothesis, inasmuch as not one fad in ttn, 
as instanced by you, occurred agreeably to the rule laid down. So the 



332 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

law is perceived to be on the side of the exceptions. It was a strange 
infatuation which prompted you to give the dates, for the figures are 
more destructive to the loose fabric of your theory than so many 
flaming torches and armed battering-rams would be to a wooden building. 
Sic transit gloria. 

Now if your direct testimony is so discordant, how would you abide 
the ordeal of a searching cross-examination. Moreover, what are we to 
believe in the premises .? Nothing, I apprehend, on such testimony 
as you have been pleased to oflFer. Should a witness, on being sum- 
moned to the stand, directly contradict himself in any material point, his 
testimony would be vitiated and rejected. For example, should he 
allege at one time that, A. performed a certain transaction, afterward 
that the said act was committed by B., and again that C. perpetrated 
the same ; or should he testify, either on the same or on different occa- 
sions, that the deed was accomplished with a knife, a blunderbuss, and 
a crow-bar, his testimony would be deemed utterly unreliable and worth- 
less. Is not this your position, as regards the sum of your testimony 
concerning the origin and philosophy of the manifestations .'' To facil- 
itate the answer to this question permit me now to bring the facts to a 
focus. 

In the course of the first part of the discussion, while laboring to 
establish your peculiar theory, you successively attributed the Spiritual 
Manifestations, in their several phases, to the ''imitative mechanic 
power of the medium " ; to biological hallucination ; the power of imi- 
tation, as displayed in pantomimic exhibitions ; to somnambulism ; mad- 
ness ; drunkenness ; excessive love, and poetic temperaments ; delibe- 
rate imposture ; od-force, with and without the ulterior action of mind 5 
positive and negative relations, conditions and forces ; electro-magne- 
tism ; vacuum ; abnormal states and nervous diseases ; vibrations occa- 
sioned by musical sounds ; and, lastly, to the positive state of the atmo- 
sphere, recurring periodically at nearly regular intervals, and coinci- 
dentally with plagues, earthquakes, religious movements and political 
convulsions ; all of which were ascribed to the same general causes. 

Such is your explanation ; and thus have you labored to prove that, 
The, mysterioibs fkenonwma., now occurring in various parts of the United 
States and elsewhere, and knoivn as the Spiritual Manifestations^ can be 
PROPERLY ACCOUNTED FOR without admitting the agency of spirits in 
their production. In conclusion, I desire you and our readers to make 
all proper allowance for the varieties in the forms of manifestatiou. 
This, certainly, can be afforded, and still it will be perceived, with suffi- 



A DISCUSSION. 



cient distinctness, that the same phenomenal apj^earances have been 
attributed to wholly diiferent causes, and that ia this way you have vir- 
tually neutralized your own efforts and failed of establishing your fun- 
damental position. 

Will you still persevere in this peculiar way, 

" Explaining tliese mysteries to the nation, 
Or, will you now explain your explanation .'" 

I remain, dear sk, Yours fraternally, S. B. BRITTAN. 



KEPLY TO S. B BKITTAN. 

NUMBER TEN. 

My Dear Sir : Your tenth letter is received — and as you allude in 
a note to the sjpace occupied, I only remark that I was unaware of hav- 
ing occupied more than yourself, and of course all I ask is " equal 
privileges." You have been liberal over much, in more ways than one; 
you have dared to publish in your paper all that could be brought 
against your theory of the Manifestations ; thus vindicating before the 
world that you had confidence in your own position. The first series 
kept at a stand-point, and as your's grew in size, I felt the same spirit, 
and have been illustrating the law of imitation. 

And now, suppose that we admit that " none of the known material 
laws " account for any part of these occurrences, does that prove that 
Spirits work these influences .'' To me, it only proves that it is some- 
thing we don't comprehend, or to which we do not see their applica- 
tion ; and seeing as we do that they are always connected with persons, 
it would be logical to conclude that some known or unknown law of 
personality gave them existence ; no " revising " of the old edition of 
humanity is at all needed; there may be, and probably are, many laws 
of our being that have been overlooked, or misapprehended, or par- 
tially developed 

You allude to the manner of treating the subject, and ask if it has 
been treated in a " respectful, candid and logical manner .?" That de- 
pends on the persons who are judges. A great variety of opinions are 
expressed, as in all similar cases. One person says, " Mr. B. is a pret- 
ty sharp shooter, but he don't touch your positions " ; another sends 
word, from a distance, that I am " proving Spiritualism, out and out " ; 
another says, in a letter — and his opinion is weighty — " You have done 
more for Spiritualism than Mr. B. himself" ; another said to me, when 
he got the first letter, " B. has got you — he has proved his position " ; 
another says, " Why do you let him use you up so " ; another says, 
" Our cause has not suffered at his (the Doctor's) hands, yet " ; and a 
tenth writes me that I " liave hewed up Mr. B. worse than Samuel 
hewed up Agag before the Lord " — all of which kind opinions I am 
grateful for, not dreaming that our respective friends- have any particu- 



A DISCUSSION. 335 

lar idea on what they base their belief. Let the world judge of its 
merits, as it surely will,- and accord us strict justice — we are too much 
interested to be fit judges of what we have written. While doubting 
my seriousness, honesty, and relevancy, you claim for yourself n. " can- 
did and philosophical spirit." Let those who read judge of that also. 
You propose to glance at each of my letters, to show the " prominent 
idea in each " ; I refer the reader to the letters themselves, as the best 
place to find the ideas in them — while I will aflFord you what additional 
light I can on the main points in debate. 

You refer to " imitations ^''^ and quote me as saying, " The whole, 
then, is the work of the imitative mechanic power of the medium." The 
word " whole " .imply refers to the facts ^ spirits^ writings, then under 
notice. The illustrations drawn from biology were pertinent. What is 
the moving force in the mind of the biologized .'' Clearly an " idea," 
as Mr. Sunderland has it — and the manifestation always follows the 
idea^ in a good subject, and so of the manifestations ; an idea is first 
planted in the mind, and the events follow, as a general rule — always, 
when the conditions are observed. " On such a day you will be 
healed " — " Do so and so, and the spirits will write without hands " — 
" Leave paper on the table, and the spirits will write," &c. We may 
sometimes be obliged to refer to the communication to detect the mo- 
tive force — as in L. M. Austin's case. He had lost three children^ and 
raps seemed to be made at three different points. The term " three " 
was the governing force. 

I have illustrated this point repeatedly — and only remark that, to 
me, it is clear that mind, in all its acts, works from a center — a motive 
force — a centripetal influence. Mediums could not manifest the residts 
they do, if they had not the idea of spirits in the mind ; that becomes 
the fulfirum — the strong force — and the idea of spirit aid, or some idea 
that supplies that very place, must always be in operation. The person 
who believes that he is God, or the king, or that he is aided by spirits, 
by the Devil, is bewitched — acts always from that idea ; it controls and 
molds him, and governs him. Some mind in the body, so far as I can 
trace the facts, has always supplied the medium with the motive idea — 
a father, sister, wife, child, friend, mother. Am I understood .' The 
biologizer, in the medium, is as plain to me as in the case of the biolo- 
gized. The same law of a center, a fulcrum force, holds good with 
chairs and tables — not that they are supplied with an idea^ but the me- 
dium has the idea that his spirit-friend can move it, and the person is 
put in contact with the table through the nerve fluid. 



33G BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

I illustrated imitative power by referring to the pantomimic art — and 
it was all in place ; and to this we may add the remark of Mr. XIpham, 
that the girl in the care of Dr. Mather surpassed, in her imitative skill, 
belief itself ; it ranged through a great diversity of imitations. So with 
mediums. Numerous persons have in fact turned actors, and are imi- 
tating almost everything and body ; and as you assert that they imitate 
the dead^ and must therefore be en rapport with their spirits, I reply 
that your position would be invulnerable if we could not show, in all 
cases, that the facts, and words, and sentiments imitated, or " person- 
ated,'''' existed in the minds of the living. We find these media often 
en rapport with a hook, a paper, a lecture, writing out extracts that they 
verily believe come from spirits. These facts destroy the force of your 
syllogism. I have never yet seen a communication that was not marked 
by the style of the medium. Communications from N. P. Rogers, 
Judson, Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Adams, &c., always bear the ear- 
marks of the media, or the persons who control them in the sentiment 
uttered. The sentiment of N. P. Rogers is personated, but his style 
has not, nor can not, be imitated. He was one of the most chaste and 
racy writers that New-England could boast ; the communications pur- 
porting to come from him are not his. 

The autographs, and Daniel, need no further notice ; tricks arc 
plenty in every such excitement, but facts duly authenticated I have 
always contended for in my amiahle way. 

That the human will has some agent or medium by which it seizes 
and uses our physical bodies, is well known. This fluid, so far as such 
a fact can be shown, is under the control of the will after it has been 
transmitted to chairs, tables, muskets and pumpkins. Muscular motion 
can only be explained by the fact that the will impels the nerve fluid, 
or nerve-Mood, over the muscle, causing every fiber to change their re- 
lations — thus producing contraction and expansion. If I remember, 
the experiments of Galvani showed that galvanism did not produce 
motion in the involuntary muscles of the body. Call muscular motion 
electrical, galvanic, or odic, and its all the same — these terms serve to 
cover up our ignorance of ultimates, and all caviling over them end 
where they begin. I have often referred to these and similar terms, 
to familiaiize the mind of the reader with the idea of a something- used 
by the human will. 

You refer to od-flame as a harmless thing. Steam, as it rises from 
the boiling vessel, is harmless— will not move a " fly " — but pen it up, 
and put heat under it, and it blows the huge vessel or rock to atoms. 



A DISCUSSION. do/ 

So pen up od-force, and put mind in contact, and we see its force and 
intensity. Hibbert's rock, in the Shetland Isles, shows what fluid will 
do when impelled upon solids — and the gymnotus shows what will can 
do with electricity as a lever, even on a small scale. 

It is not contended that man has a voluntary power of giving a " dis- 
ruptive " shock, but many of the facts go to show that he has such a 
power that involuntarily manifests itself under certain conditions — as 
plainly as the heart-beat shows an involuntary force exercised over that 
organ. 

The facts in the Silesian castle left when Kerner left, and they were 
identical with your modern wonders, but always depended on flesh and 
blood. 

The pumping is still a puazle, and you ask, how does so light a fluid 
get down through the pump at all .' It is impelled by mind — a supe- 
rior force. 

It is my friend who makes man's spirit such a '' clumsy creature " ; 
you place it below goose-force — for by that the bird can rise in the air. 
but no, Mr. Gordon must not rise by force of mind in the body ! You 
ask why sunlight does not produce a vacuum near the earth ; I reply, 
the efl"ect of the sun's action on air is gradual, and its expansion can 
not, as all observation shows, by the sun's action reach that point. 
Earthquakes are by some supposed to be produced by the reflection of 
all the planets and stars— producing something approaching a vacuum 
near the earth, and the rolling fluid inside seeks an outlet or an equili- 
brium. You quote from the Baron, to show that od-force is slowly 
transmitted from the hand to substances in contact. That is so. And 
then you contrast it with electricity, to show their dissimilarity — while 
you are aware of the difi'erence in the mode of manifestation in galvan- 
ism, voltaism, electricity, magnetism, &c., and yet they are admitted 
as modifications of the same thing. The time of sitting around tables, 
shows that it moves slowly from one body into another — but accumulate 
it in vast quantities in space and it may, for aught you have shown,. 
move even as fast as light. 

That persons in sound health may be impressible is not denied, but 
mediums as a class are "delicately organized." 

The cry, at the beginning of these events, was, that a nexv wonder 
was in the earth — a " new dispensation " was setting in — something 
" new under the sun " we had certainly got — but my tenth letter, and 
other facts similar, has effectually demolished that bug-bear. Similar 
phenomena seem to have attended the race as far back as we can tracer 

22 



338 £RITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

them in history. The High Rock miracle, caused by singings seems to 
puzzle you. As it would seem, the viusic mentioned s^s the cause would 
not connect itself with the mind of the singer, unless especially men- 
tioned. So you think. So rapidly have the table esperiments spread, 
and left the impression that spirits have nothing to do with the physical 
movements, that I will be magnanimous in my rejoicing. I affirm these 
phenomena to be periodic and epidemic. You deny my position. Now 
one year ago, or a little more, no man in America, so far as I know, 
had thought of its being an epidemic. In the space of a few months, 
A. J. Davis, the Seer, announced in our place and all over the country, 
that " thi?-ty per cent, of the phenomena was epideinic,^'' " thirty more., 
tricks that would make angels weep," and forty per centum piorely spir- 
itual. That is a broad stride toward the truth. As you question the 
periodicity of these phenomena, and also of disease, I remark that Pla- 
terius records seven plagues that afflicted the city of Basil in seventy 
years, and they recur in periods of ten years with but one exception. 
The great plagues of past ages which have depended on atmospheric 
causes show singular returns iu centuries. One occurred in A. D. 400, 
another 590, in 802, in 905, in 1005, in 1106, 1222, in 1300, 1400, in 
1500, in 1602, in 1709, in 1800, yellow fever prevailed over the world. 
Between these periods lie numerous plagues, of course, but these sus- 
tain most singularly my idea of centuries. The period of return in 
England is stated to be very near forty years. Have you demolished 
my facts .? The periodicity of earthquakes is conceded. Mr. Bayard 
Taylor, during the past summer, witnessed an eruption, at Catania, o^ 
Etna, while the peasants and citizens were celebrating the martyrdom 
of a female saint, whose death occurred just two hundred years before, 
.and the outrage produced an earthquake, and it returned to a day, as it 
would seem, and the feast and the earthquake both passed under his 
'observation on the same day. Why this is, we do not clearly com- 
jprehend. 

You question my statement of the law of plagues and mental epidem- 
ics, as to its application to male s,ndi female. Of the plague in the reign 
-of Justinian, Gibbon says, vol. iv, p. 293, " Youth was the most peril- 
■ ous season ; but the female sex wa.s less susceptible than the mate.'''' The 
magnetic religious epidemic, known as the French prophets, the histo- 
ruan remarks that the mass of them " were girls and boys, from ten tu 
twenty-five years of age." The Dancers and Jumpers follow the same 
;law. Those mentioned by Kerner were mostly " children." The 
JTerkers of Kentucky were mostly wo'.sien and children who were aftected 



A DISCUSSION. S39 

with vision, trances, and ecstacies, while the men seemed more given to 
jerks. Travelers were often seized by sympathy. The profane also, 
cursing at every jerk, often gave a ludicrous variety to this phenomenon. 
The bewitched, in New-England, were mostly women ; it began among 
girls, and was mainly carried on by them. The power among the Meth- 
odists was mainly among women. And friend Brittan tells me that the 
mass of mediums are women and children — while the yellow fever of 
1800 showed vastly more deaths among robust men than any other 
class of persons. 

The two periods of magnetic disease under Valens, in Rome and in 
Alexandria, are not accurately noticed on this point. I am glad that 
you quoted that passage, and to its statement I still adhere, and all the 
facts of history, so far as I can find any, sustain my view. 

When I stated the periodicity of these phenomena, and their relation 
to physical disease, it was incumbent on me to show the facts that sus- 
tain the law. I think I have done so, to the satisfaction of all reason- 
able men. If these phenomena are a special providence from G-od — an 
invention of Benjamin Franklin, according to Davis — it appears from 
history, beyond all cavil, that various attempts have been made to intro- 
duce these convincing proofs of immortality among men — and that Di- 
vine Wisdom has had most miserable luck in his attempts, as they have 
been put down by the Old Hunkers in difierent ages. As I have 
passed from subject to subject for illustration, you have as constantly 
contended that I was alleging different causes for these occurrences, is 
Is first " A," then " B," then " C," and so on. You misapprehend, 
or misrepresent me. These and similar phenomena have, at various 
epochs, engaged the attention of men of great learning and talent — 
witchcraft and ghost-seeing have been discussed by crowned heads, 
gartered knights, doctors, lawyers, judges, and divines, and the world 
has been left as wise at the end as when they began, but what is notori- 
ous in all these periodic controversies, the good and the wise, though 
unable to account for the phenomena, have in the end repudiated the 
idea of Satanic influence, or of witchcraft occurring through his power. 
King James caused the death of hundreds of his subjects by his writ- 
ings in its favor, and in the end he renounced his belief in it, and 
directed the judges to be cautious in condemning those accused of witch- 
ciaft. His final conclusion was that it was wholly imposture. 

I think that I have scattered a ueio light over all these subjects that 
will enable the world in future to grasp and ooniprehrnd them, snd as- 



340 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

sign them to the laws that originate and control them. Time is a severe 
but just arbiter of differences. 

To the friends who want the space of the Telegraph, I will say 
that they will soon have it — and as there are quite a number of persona 
in the country who dissent from your Spiritual hypothesis, the space in 
the paper may turn out to have been well occupied. Rest assured, 
meantime, that Grod has made no creatures who can overthrow his laws, 
and the fallacy of my views will be confirmed or overthrown. I ask no 
favor from criticism ; only let it be conducted in a spirit worthy of this 
progressive and highly Spiritual age. Occupy all the space you wish in 
your reviews. Yours truly, 

B. W. RICHMOND. 



BMTTAN AND RICHMOliD'S DISCUSSION. 

NUMBER ELEVEIV. 

REVIEW OF THE DOCTOR'S SECOND SERIES. 

Dear Sir : In the first part of our controversy I was particular to 
confine myself to a deliberate consideration of your facts, whenever they 
were relevant, and incidentally to your speculations, so far as they ap- 
peared 10 belong to the realm of probabilities. I did not deem it ap- 
propriate to introduce facts calculated to establish my own views, for 
the reason that the rules of orderly discussion do not admit of this 
liberty. The negative may, if the necessities of the case require, cite 
facts by way of illustration, but never as proof. But your course since 
the form of the question was changed has been essentially the same as 
before, and wholly different from that which I felt called on to pursue. 
As you have the negative of the question, it is only necessary to reply 
to what may be offered in the affirmative. To go on precisely as you 
did when the first proposition was pending is improper and out of order. 
Hence the numerous facts which have filled your recent letters, and 
swelled them to such an unusual length, have been dragged in most 
inappropriately and may, therefore, bo dismissed without controversy. 
The whole of your first series of twelve letters was designed to afford 
you an opportunity to present the facts and arguments for Materialism, 
or in support of the general theory or idea that ascribes the manifesta- 
tions to physical causes. If that work was not accomplished in the dis- 
cussion of the first proposition, it is too late to undertake it now. I 
have already replied to whatever seemed important in your affirmative 
letters, and do not propose to perform that labor a second time, seeing 
that there are several other things, in this world, that yet remain to be 
done. 

Now it is for you to account for my Spiritual fads on your material 
principles. If you fail in this, the failure amounts to a presumption in 
favor of the Spirits, and may warrant the inference that your position is 
indefensible. You may continue to drag in a dozen facts, chosen and 
stated at random, for every one cited by me, but all this affords no sort 
of an explanation of my single fact. You are required to take the 
identical example, show its precise relation to your theory, and prove^ 



34S 



A DISCUSSION. 



that the principles of your philosophy account for that particular fact^ in 
a fair and logical manner. This you have not so much as attempted 
during our whole correspondence. On the contrary you seem to have 
entertained the idea, that if you could only tell a greater number of 
stories, and more improbable ones, nothicg more would be necessary to 
offaet and explain my facts, or at least to neutralize their force. And 
is this meeting the question in a legitimate manner ? Nay ; the ques- 
tion is not met at all — it is not likely to be met — and this clumsy effort 
at evasion pays as poor a compliment to the candor and logical acumen 
cf my medical friend, as it oflers to the reader's intelligence. 

A few things contained in your recent letters may !-eem to demand a 
brief rejoinder, and with all readiness I now proceed to consider thera. 
It was in your first letter, on the second proposition, that the power of 
material gravitation over spirits was so boldly asserted. The point as- 
sumed was very plainly stated thus : " The moment the spirit gets its foot 
loose from the body it would be driven from the earth with the speed of 
lightning." This assumption, based on the imponderability of Spirits, 
and their alleged incapacity to oppose the slightest resistance to a mere- 
ly physical law, was urged in a confident tone until, in my sixth affirm- 
ative letter, I paused to make a brief rejoinder. How could I any 
longer resist your polite yet emphatic exhortation — " JYo bolting here — 
stand up to the fact ".? This sort of eflFervescent confidence, in a season 
of unusual extremity, reminded me of the following lines from Trum- 
bull's McFingal : 

" For genius swells more strong and clear 
When close confined — like bottled beer." 

But as this amusing attempt to prove that human spirits can only 
remain near the earth so long as they are firmly anchored in the flesh, 
presents about the only instance wherein you have made an eifort to 
reason, I shall be excused for giving it some further attention. An 
argument, even if it be unsound, relieves the monotony, and 

"Til entertain the favored fallacy," 
though the sophistry be transparent already. The power to resist the 
action of the existing law you have only denied to the unshackled spirit. 
You ascribed this power to other things ; to man, to inferior creatures, 
and to unorganized matter, as I shall proceed to show by citing your 
own words. In your first letter, of the present series, you hold the 
following language : 

" We have before us a fact, every moment, of man, by the force of will, con- 
stantly overcoming the laws of gravitation. Man is a lucky machine, con- 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 343 

trived of body and mind, for tluit very purpose. In our present condition we can 
overcome those laws by vAll-force directly," &c. 

In your eighth letter jou afl&rmed, that " recently a lady in our region " 
went into a trance, and " that she connected herself to the Jloor^ by will 
through the od-force," so firmly that the combined strength of a num- 
ber of men "was insufficient to " lift her." In the succeeding letter you 
ascribed Mr. Gordon's aereal journey to his '•'■unconscious will-forced 
Then you make eagles overcome gravitation so as to ascend to a great 
altitude. This, according to your philosophy, is not done by diminish- 
ing the density of the fibrous portions of their bodies, not by the resist- 
ance of the atmosphere to the motion of their pinions, but by their 
power to rarefy the od-force^ which was rare enough before. Finally, as 
a climax to this chapter of assumptions, we are told that od-force, a 
highly sublimated inorganic substance, notwithstanding it displaces com- 
mon air as efieetually as a spirit could do, has power to descend with 
the rapidity of light against the action of gravitation. All this you 
assume and teach in an oracular manner, and yet boldly deny that the 
deathless spirit possesses a similar power. Now, if these assumptions 
taken together possess the least significance, they must warrant the in- 
ference that you have no faith in the imlividual, conscious existence of the 
spirit, when separated from the body. I would not make the simple 
acceptance of any truth a matter of personal merit, nor would I ascribe 
sentiments to any man which he is disposed to repudiate ; but, really, 
if Dr. Richmond is serious in what he asserts it is impossible to resist 
the conviction 5 the fact is as clear as daylight, that in denying the 
powers of the spirit you virtually deny the existence, of the spirit. 

I will prove this. Every living thiog, every inanimate object, each 
separate substance or distinct element in Nature, has its specific form, 
constituent qualities and peculiar uses. These enable us to determine 
the essential nature of dififerent objects, as well as the genus and species 
to which they severally belong ; and, observing these distinctions, we 
classify natural objects according to a scientific formula. Deprive any 
object of the inherent qualities and forces which belong to it, and its 
individual nature is changed or destroyed ; it ceases to be what it for- 
merly was and becomes something difiierent. Precisely in this manner 
do you annihilate man. He is chiefly known to be man by the posses- 
sion and exercise of his mental or spiritual powers. In drawing the 
line between the human and animal kingdoms, the naturalist must ob- 
serve certain mental faculties — reason, conscience and the religious, 
sentiment — rather than any merely outward organic distinctions. The; 



344 A DISCUSSION. 

reader is here requested to observe that Dr. Richmond ascribes several 
remarkable powers to man, among which the following are deserving of 
particular attention : 1. He can, " by the force of his will, constantly 
overcome the laws " which govern the lifeless elements. 2. He can, 
also, while in Fitchburgh, Mass., be en rapfort with minds in England, 
at a distance of 3,000 miles, so as to receive accurate mental impres- 
sions. Now these powers are necessary to constitute man what he is — 
to render him truly Man. But Dr. Richmond deprives him of these the 
very moment he abandons his earthly habitation. The Doctor will not 
admit that man ever did, or ever can exercise these powers when once 
he is separated from the body. Thus it is virtually assumed that the 
flesh is the all of man, and that the immortal life is a mere chimera. 
For man, surely, is no longer Man when his most exalted attributes are 
forever gone, and he has no power to perform the things which once 
came within the scope of his faculties. And thus does this crude phi- 
losophy continue to deride the principles of common logic, by indulging 
in its own vain whimsicalities ; thus does it trifle with the noblest real- 
ities, and foster a facetious mockery of the deepest instincts and divinest 
liopes of humanity. 

It must be obvious that if death does not destroy the powers of the 
spirit — annihilate the Man — we shall at least be quite as capable of 
resisting material forces hereafter as we are in this present life. More- 
over, what if the spirit were subject to these forces, so that it would be 
inevitably forced away from the earth, agreeably to your hypothesis, 
and because it is lighter than air. It would not have far to go. The 
extreme bight of the atmosphere is estimated at less than fifty miles * 
Now an intervening distance of 3,000 miles was, admitting what you 
assert, no obstacle to the exercise of the spirit's powers while in the 
body ; and, it must follow of necessity, if the spirit still retains its pow- 
ers after the separation — in other words, if it exists — for this is the 
question stripped of all disguise — it can have no difficulty in establish- 
ing similar relations with other minds that yet remain in the flesh. It 
will be perceived, therefore, that granting the assunvption with which 
you set out, the remarkable powers claimed for the human mind are 
wholly incompatible with your conclusion respecting the impossibility of 
intercommunication between the Spiritual and Natural Worlds. You 
rested your objection, to the possibility of intercourse between spirits 
and mortals, on the assumed inability of the former to remain on earth, 
for the reason, as alleged by you, that they are specifically lighter than 

* WoUaston's calculation limits it to about forty-five miles. 



ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 345 

air. Granting what you assume, preposterous as it is, and still we per- 
ceive no obstacle to the intercourse with spirits. To assert the impos- 
sibility of being en rapport with them, because they are some fifty miles 
off, while you positively insist that Mr. Hooper, of Massachusetts, was 
m rapport with minds in England, most fully realizes all that is com- 
prehended in that significant Scripture, which speaks of ' straining at a 
gnat and swallowing a camel.' Thus it legitimately follows, that im- 
mortal beings may be en rapport with men, and communicate their 
thoughts to the world, without transcending the laws which, according 
to your assumed premises, do now exist and are in full operation. Here 
is the issue, plain and palpable ; and by what new phantasmagorical 
shift shall the readers' attention be next diverted } 

In your second letter in the negative you pursue the same general 
course of reasoning. I will cite a brief passage to illustrate the material 
tendency of the whole. 

"All our knowledge of man shows that the atmosphere is essential to his exist- 
ence — he must breathe. The chemical changes produced in the blood are well 
known — a constant renovation, or calorification, of the blood is indispensable to 
animal life." 

From this you proceed, after the usual mode, to the conclusion, that 
spirits could not live in our atmosphere if they were not instantly re- 
moved by a physical necessity. But you reason from what you know 
of the conditions of aidnial life^ and not at all from what is true with 
respect to spiritual existence. I profess but a very slight acquaintance 
with the spiritual-anatomical structure, and the particular processes which 
characterize its life in the spheres ; but, as it is generally agreed that 
flesh and blood do not inherit the immortal life, I venture to presume 
that the old process of" calorification " may be dispensed with. 

Some of the more important facts of the mysterious voices, cited in 
my second letter, you dispose of in two or three lines, which only 
amount to an unskillful evasion. 

My third letter contains some important facts of Spiritual agency, as 
witnessed in the manifestations by writings, all of which you dispose of 
without an effort. It is done in an instant. A peculiar movement of 
the pen, and the utterance of a single word is all that is required, the 
spirits are cast ou't, and anything you please is constituted master of 
ceremonies for the occasion. Quick as the facile motion of a magician's 
wand the transformations occur — not, indeed, in reality, perhaps not 
even in appearance ; but in your own mind. And thus the most signifi- 
cant facts are treated in a careless and trifling manner, which can 



346 A DISCUSSION. 

hardly arrest the attention, much less convince the judgment, of the 
serious reader. 

I need not pause, in this hasty review, to notice your criticism of the 
writing in Hebrew, which has been so often referred to in the course of 
this controversy. It was altogether harmless in its bearing and has 
been eflFectually disposed of by Prof. Bush. The objections, so formi- 
dable in your own mind, disappeai'ed all at once and as suddenly as 
your authorities were scattered when Dr. Cory went to look for them. 

Your fourth letter, in the negative, occupies nearly twice the space 
allotted to a single letter by the original stipulations. You managed 
to keep at a convenient distance from the subject, and the reader will 
not suspect you of any attempt to reply. The contents of number four 
appear to have been drawn from a cyclopedia of history without much 
effort to render the selections appropriate. 

You concluded your fourth epistle by telling us what you would do 
if ' you were a ghost.'' You would accomplish many noble enterprises 
— have not space to enumerate them here — you would at least " do 
something toorthy of a ghost ".' AmoDg the particular reforms tluit 
would first engage your attention we are expressly certified that you 
would not have so " much mental twaddle " as is said to prevail just 
now. Such promises afford much encouragement, especially to those 
who believe. How far the reformation of the world might be promoted 
by the experiment, it is impossible to tell. We can only judge of what 
you would be likely to do by what you are now doing. We should con- 
fidently look for a revised edition of the Baron's Djinamics, and the od- 
force at Vienna would be made to travel as fast as it does in this coun- 
try. It must, to keep up with my friend and the spirit of the age. 
But the proposed suppression of the " mental twaddle " might depend 
on circumstances, and especially on the facilities for communication. 

Your fifth letter is very long, but it is in no proper sense a reply to 
mine. The following brief extract is all that requires attention in this 
review : 

" I might legitimately refuse these points any notice, and I am aware that any 
notice of them places me under the " odium theolo^icum." If you have brought 
them in to gain an advantage by skulking under the beliefof the church — and 
letting me bear the odium, your motive is not a high one and will fail of its de- 
sired end. The church is anxious to get rid of Spiritualism, and favors my views, 
so far as I know." 

Reference is here made to the introduction of facts from the Bible 
which half inclines my correspondent to indulge a slight suspicion con- 
cerning the motives which prompted the selections. This is not author- 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 347 

ized by my mode of treating the subject. It has been my debit e to meet 
the question delibeiately and fairly, and to do this it was necessary to 
select facts, from various sources. This I have done, treating all facts 
of the same class as equally sacred, regardless of what the church or 
world may say. How could I consistently disregard the facts of the 
Bible .'' I should as soon think of writing the history of English poetry 
without recording the names of William Shakspeare and John Milton, 
as I would attempt to treat the subject of Spiritual intercourse, without 
referring to the examples contained in the Scriptures. I opine that my 
friend is precisely where the subject and his peculiar views place him. 
If the predicament is an unpleasant one it is not the fault of the present 
writer. The church has known the undersigned longer than Dr. Rich- 
mond has — perhaps too long to suspect him of " skulking" beneath its 
shadow for any purpose, and least of all with a view of purchasing its 
smiles at the expense of his most sacred convictions. If this course was 
not pursued years ago, when there was much to hope from its fostering 
care, it is now quite too late to resort to this temporizing policy. The 
time for magnanimous effort has fully come, when the high responsibili- 
ties of manhood crowd upon us, and the awakening spirit of Inspiration 
bids us look to the opening Heavens for consolation and hope. 

In your sixth letter you labor earnestly, but with very questionable 
success, to make it appear that my views are founded in Materialism. 
The only proof accessible was a single passage from the first volume of 
the Shekinah which you quoted as follows : '^ The absurdity of be- 
lieving the soul to be and yet to be nothing, is left to be disposed of 
by those who entertain such an opinion." . . . . " The soul is an or- 
ganized spiritual body — a form within a Jorm." From this brief extract 
you proceed to the conclusion which, to say the least, is very sweeping. 
I will here give you the benefit of its repetition : 

"Now, friend B., out of your own mouth will I condemn you Your 

■whole eysteoijfrom beginning to end, is niaterialisiii, and you will not dispute it 
after what you have written. Sincerity is above all price ; do not wrong your- 
self — you can not wrong me." 

"What there is here to warrant the assumption that the writer is a ma- 
terialist, or to justify a suspicion of his sincerity, I have no means of 
knowing. What, I may be allowed to ask, is Materialism } The fol- 
lowing is the answer, according to Noah Webster : " T/ie opinmi that 
the soul of man is not a spiritual substance distinct from matter^ 
but that it is the result or effect of the organization of matter in the body?'' 
I am willing to accept this definition. I think a more lucid and com- 



348 A DISCUSSION. 

prehensive one might be given, but the true distinction will be obvious 
even in this. As the word is here defined those who deny that the soul 
is a spiritual substance — all who entertain the idea that its powers depend 
on the corporeal organization and are hence merely phenomenal — are 
materialists. This, if I do not greatly err, is your position. You evi- 
dently make the soul a bodily function. That it is a spiritual entity does 
nowhere appear from what you have written. With a body of fleshy a 
man may be en rapport with his kindred and friends thre/t thousand miles 
off so as to receive the most accurate intelligence ; and this distance 
opposes no barrier to the transmission of his thoughts. Take away his 
flesh and according to Dr. Richmond he can not telegraph a friend from 
the top of the atmosphere, or at a, distance of only fifty miles ! All 
this you confidently assert and maintain, insisting most strenuously that 
these essential powers of the soul are suspended by the dissolution of the 
body. Now as materialism consists in believing that the soul is the 
" effect of the organization of matter in the body,'''' are you not a mate- 
rialist } It certainly appears so. Whenever you are disposed to re- 
nounce that creed we shall be happy to publish your recantation. 

But it is boldly asserted that the Editor of the Telegraph is a ma- 
terialist — that " his whole system from beginning to end is material- 
ism." It is easy for Dr. Richmond to say that, but is it susceptible of 
proof.? To enable the reader to decide this question, I will here intro- 
duce the passage which you had the misfortune to garble : 

I adopt the idea of an ancient Spiritual philosopher : " There is a physical 
body, and there is a spiritual body." The soul is an organized spiritual body — 
a form within a form. The outward man is gross and perceptible by its own senses, 
while the inward form is refined in its composition, and can only be perceived 
through a medium of sensation ethereal as its own nature. — {^Sliekinah, yol.l, 
page 64.) 

Now agreeably to Webster's definition those who do believe that the 
soul is a spiritual substance — a substantial entity — are not materialists. 
This is precisely our position, and the design of the whole article in the 
Shekinah was to illustrate this view of the subject, in opposition to Dr. 
Richmond and others who maintain that the spirit ceases to ac^, and of 
consequence to be, when the body is dissolved. 

In the same letter you attempted to ridicule the claims of Spiritualism, 
by introducing a form of prayer, which was irreverently addressed to the 
Supreme Deity. To say that this was in bad taste will not exactly 
express the public judgment ; it was profane. Spiritualists will, I am 
sure, overlook the discourtesy to themselves, but it should be remem- 
bered, they are not universally destitute of a becoming veneration for 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 349 

the Divine name and nature, and that the religious sensibilities of some 
may be outraged, if not by this unmeasured contempt of their faith, at 
least by this thoughtless mockery of Heaven. Should it be necessary to 
employ such forms of illustration hereafter, allow me to suggest the 
propriety of your praying to the god of Od-force, the acknowledged source, 
or proximate cause, of the principal wonders you have attempted to 
explain. 

I am happy to concur in your high estimate of Prof. Buchanan, but 
when you express your " deep conviction " that neither the Professor 
nor any who entertain the Spiritual idea, " see clearly the logical appli- 
cation of the principles they teach," some incredulous soul may laugh 
audibly, and even the gravity of the saints be put to the rack. Shade 
of John Locke ! may no recent effort of my correspondent, to show us 
the '■'■logical application ^^ o£ these things, disturb the serenity of thy 
repose ! 

Allow me to terminate this epistle abruptly, whUe I remain, in the 
search for truth, Faithfully yours, 

S. B. BRITTAN. 



REPLY TO S. B. BEITTAN. 

NUMBER ELEVEN. 

My Dear Sir : Number eleven of your series of letters reached me 
one week later than usual, and as you wish to end the Discussion with 
this volume of the Telegraph, I hasten to reply. 

You complain, in your opening, of the manner in which I have chosen 
to answer your letters — and I can only say, that we differ in this in- 
stance, as in all others. You admit that the negative may " cite facts 
by way of illustration," and this I have done — and the very nature of 
the case seemed to require this course. A class of alleged facts have 
been piled up by yourself, in proof of your theory of these phenomena, 
and I am not aware that one line has dropped from your pen attempt- 
ing to prove that these facts necessarily prove that the spirits of the 
departed have been engaged in their production. To me it has seemed 
that your deduction from the facts was a naked assumption or a bare 
conjecture that spirits might produce such phenomena, in this or that 
manner, without offering any argument or proof on that important point. 
You suggested that the spirits might act on the electrical currents of 
the brain, impelling them over the auditory nerve, producing sound, etc., 
and also that they might "decompose the watery vapor of the atmo- 
sphere" and produce light^ but Mr. Brittan must be aware that sugges- 
tions are not arguments, and only establish a presumption. To meet 
your facts there was but one course left for me, and that was to array 
an analogous class of facts, evidently depending on causes not connected 
with the spirits who have left the mortal body, and then the conclusion 
would appear inevitable. No theory can be settled but by classifying 
facts which seem to give rise to that partiular theory — and when one 
class of the facts relating to it are clearly and indisputably connected 
with causes acting within the sphere of our bodies and minds, another 
class of facts analogous and similar in their features are thereby shown 
to be referable to the same cause — or not necessarily referable to an 
entirely different cause. 

Your complaint seems groundless, for this very reason : that the 
facts I have given most palpably illustrate my theory, and refute yours 
at the same time, for they do " account for your spiritual fads,^' as 



A DISCUSSION. . 351 

you fire pleased to call them — and n«)t one fact has been cited but has 
been accounted for this side of spirit influence. 

I shall not stop to contend with you as to what is logic, and what is 
not, or to defend my "candor or logical acumen." That I leave to the 
judgment of those who are proper judges of what I have written. These 
personalities I have objected to — they have been frequently repeated ; 
and, if your testimony is taken, you have been most unfortunate in 
selecting an opponent. My logic is faulty, my candor questionable', my 
facts not relevant, my intellect oblique, ray method out of order, my 
praying profanity — and I can only reply by saying that, I know men 
who differ with you on all these points. 

You again allude to my proposition on the imponderability of spirits, 
and their ability to overcome the laws of gravitation so as to return to 
our earth, or to remain near it, when liberated from the body. Man, 
in moving his body by force of will, and in seizing physical objects with 
the hand and moving them — and indeed all inferior animals, in walking, 
running and flying — constantly illustrates the fact that mind in the body, 
or will, if you please, can overcome gravitation, to a limited extent; 
but that does not show to what extent minds holding an entirely differ- 
ent relation to gross matter can overcome those laws. If the liberated 
spirit holds such relations as to enable it to return, or to remain near 
the earth, you are bound to show it. All our knowledge of mind and 
matter and bodies indicates that they must exert a vast force to remain 
here, or to return ; and when I deny the power of the departed spirit 
to return, I no more deny the existence of that spirit, as you assert, than 
in denying your power to fly across the ocean I deny your personal ex- 
istence. Our gross bodies seem to be in part designed to keep us near 
the earth, and were their elements changed as to density, the influence 
of our atmosphere on them would be greatly changed as well as their 
relative attraction, and if the spirit-body remains near the earth after 
death, it is clear to all that its will-force must be greatly increased, as 
it is evident that their bodies must be light, compared to any substance 
known to us — and the action of the atmosphere is to impel all bodies 
upward which are lighter than itself — and it is not for me to prove that 
spirits can not overcome this opposing force, but for you to prove that 
they can. I have not deprived the spirit of its essential attributes, but 
have merely sought to limit its powers to the extent that seemed legiti- 
mate from all existing knowledge. 

Your nest point is a strong one, and its legitimate application I shall 
not d'-ny, or attempt to keep out of sight. If the human spirit can be 



352 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

en rajp'port with another spirit 3,000 miles through space, I know of no 
itason why a disembodied spirit, ceteras paribus, may not be en rapport 
with a human spirit at the same or a greater distance. The legitimate 
application of that law of en rapport leads to such a conclusion — but 
that by no means proves that they are thus en rapport — that must de- 
pend on other testimony. If one spirit in the body may impress an- 
other in the body with an idea, and that idea be projected before the 
mental vision or hearing, it is clear that a mind out of the body may, 
if it can come in contact with a mind in the body, impress it v/ith ideas, 
and those ideas may be embodied in voices, sights, or smells — but can 
the spirit disembodied thus come in contact with minds in the body .' 
Is that a fact proven to the satisfaction of any one .'' It may be to 
you, but to me it is not. We clearly see that the human spirit in the 
body is limited in its physical powers, and in its mental also. The 
proofs drawn from the law of en rapport go further than any other in 
proving the extent to which mind may act on mind through space — and 
these facts seem consistent only in particular minds, and these minds 
seem to require a peculiar state of the physical system. Admitting 
what you claim — that spirits produce these phenomena — we then have 
a clear demonstration that they, too, are limited in their influence on 
gross matter — and it was from this point that I reasoned as to their 
will-/(9rce. Its manifestation has been quite limited, and it is admitted 
by all parties that their manifestations of mind has been very limited 
also. You have claimed that they are here in body — present^near 
us — touch us — speak to us — and move, by some means, you don't even 
guess how, chairs, tables and various other articles. To me there is no 
evidence that they are here, or that they do these things by acting on 
mediums from a distance. You suppose them to be at the outer surface 
of the atmosphere ; but we have no reason for supposing that to be 
their location. I have carefully examined the description of every 
ghost, whose appearance has been recorded within the range of my 
reading, and their personal appearance indicates that they are not disem- 
bodied spirits, but the images of men and women existing in our own 
minds ; they, for instance, wear clothes, robes, hats, caps, boots, pants, 
dresses, cloaks, beards, hair, etc., demonstrating beyond a cavil that 
they are mere specters, mental images, reflected before the mind's eye. 
Their voices, and acts, bear the same relation to our minds, and no re- 
lation whatever to the appearance or voices of departed spirits, so far 
as conjecture enables us to guess what would be their voices, gestures 
and habilaments. The facts I have brought to bear on this point, cuts 



A DISCUSSION. 353 

up by the roots the idea that they are really what they have been taken 
for — viz., the spirits of departed friends. This is our answer. 

When the question fairly comes up, may not spirits iinprtss mediums 
with these images, acting from their location, whatever that may be ? 
This is wholly improbable, as I view it ; for in a multitude of cases we 
clearly detect the source of these sights, sounds, and images, and that 
source is as clearly human as anything can be shown to be of human 
origin. This class of facts demolishes the main pillar of your theory, 
for when the spirits themselves, who have been seen in all ages, are proven 
to be mental, or visual illusions, the pedestal of your structure is swept 
away, and with it must go all the attending phenomena. The one 
spiritual fact ^ as you would call it, of seeing the departed spirit near 
us, is so completely refuted that your theory can not be rescued but 
by rescuing this point, for no important case of this class of phenomena 
is on record unconnected with this fact of ghost seeing — the spirits of 
the departed have been seen. 

I have not denied that spirits can mentally impress spirit through 
space, biit have sustained this as one of the laws of our being by which 
a class of these mysteries are explained ; nor have I denied, as you 
infer, that fair analogy from this law would indicate that departed 
spirits might thus he en rapport V7i\h. embodied spirits, but 1 do deny 
in toto that the facts claimed, as indicating this, give any evidence what- 
ever that such is the fact, but they go conclusively to show that the 
phenomena is wholly of human origin — thus indicating to n^ mind most 
forcibly that some obstacle, not understood, or overlooked, does inter- 
pose between the departed and spirits in the body. 

You can call my opinions " whimsicalities," " facetious mockery," 
but you you should remember that while you claim such a nice regard, 
for your own opinions, you must accord that liberty to others whick 
you claim for yourself. While your doctrines sf em to me to be a most 
lamentable exhibition of human weakness and credulity, I freely admit: 
that mine may seem the same to you — and to the world who disagree 
with us, I doubt not that we both appear to give evidence of being a« 
couple of the sublimest dunces that exist on the globe. 

A word on spirit atmosphere. I compared the breathing of spirits 
to our respiration, and the chemical changes which occurred in spirit- 
life to calorification^ as the best analogy that I could give of spirit respi- 
ration. The Baron Swedenborg sustains a similar idea. He says, in. 
the Spirit-world each srciety of spirits furnishes for itself, or has around 
it, an atmosphere, and that the spirits of one sphere can not breathe- 

'23 



354 EKITTAN AXD RICHMOND. 

the atmospbere of another sphere. lie says he saw the spirits of one 
sphere let down into the sphere of another society, and that they had 
respired but a moment when they gasped and exhibited signs of suffo- 
cation. This idea is sustained by all analogy drawn from animal life, 
and on this analogy I based my statement. Your acquaintance with 
spirit-anatomy does no credit to the sources of your knowledge. They 
could impart a small amount of knowledge to you on such vital topics, 
and it would, I apprehend, be quite as interesting as what you are 
now getting. 

I pass over the allusion to the writings in Hebrew, and leave Daniel 
and Prof. Bush in the hands of the facts. 

You allude to what I promise to do when I get into the Spirit-land, 
and I allude to it to illustrate a principle. The law of these communi- 
cations, as I view it, were I to enter the unseen world instantly, would 
bring out those very suggestions. The idea in your mind, or that of 
any medium, would work out its legitimate result. " Is the spirit of 
Dr. Richmond present.?" Three raps proclaim him present. "Has 
he a word to communicate .?" " Yes." " Well, what is it .?" " Divide 
the soil — give every man a home — find Franklin — down with Austria, 
and set up Kossuth." This will as certainly follow as I am sure to 
die. I have agreed with no less than sis friends, who are now dead, 
to return and indicate their presence. Two have pretended to return, 
but had forgotten their names. The first asserted that spirits some-- 
times forget their names. The second confirmed the idea, and actually 
misstated her father's name. And, should I die to-morrow, and a 
thousand mediums get what I have indicated, it would be no evidence 
to the world that I had returned, but merely indicate that the words or 
iideas in the minds of those who had read them had been -written out by 
the medium, while you and the world might claim that it was the very 
-evidence I had indicated in the Telegraph. I record this explana- 
>tion, that it may stand on record and refute the communication when id 
.comes, as it may even in the lapse of a single year, or of a single week, 
• or day. I think the world has been greatly misled by just such a traia 
•of facts. 

This train of thought leads me to a remark on Bible facts — to which 
•I did not object and which neither of us ought to disregard or set 
aside ; and when they are classed with similar facts, each should be 
treated with candor ; and as I have spoken of the specters seen by the 
ipersons in the New Testament, I repeat the statement that they are 
:.ffl.ll accounted for by spectral illusion or mental reflection, and the persons 



A DISCUSSION. 355 

seen follow the idea in the minds of those who saw them. The disciples 
had an indefinite train of ideas on the character and death of Christ. 
They seem to be that he should be put to death — rise from the dead — 
be seen of his friends — ascend to his father — and sit on his righc hand 
and judge the nations — come again in the clouds, with power and glory, 
with hosts of angels with him. The records affirm that he was put to 
death — rose from the dead — was seen of his disciples. Qne saw him, 
or an angel, on the stone by the door — another saw him in the sepul- 
cher — Mary saw him standing by her. He appeared to his disciples in 
a room — Thomas put his fingers in the prints of the nails. His disci- 
ples saw him by the wayside — they did not know him ; they then saw 
him ascend into heaven — and Stephen saw him sitting at the right 
hand of the Father. The ideas in the minds of his friends were literally 
copied in the specters seen, and the whole of them, on their very face, 
are palpably specters^ and not the person of Christ. Christ did not 
rise from the dead — and what his disciples saw were reflections of their 
own ideas. Use this as you see fit. 

You again bandy your gull-trap, " Materialism.'''' Webster defines 
substance as matter ^ as something, and Swedenborg distinguishes matter 
from spirit by calling it substance ; you believe substance or spirit to be 
a form of matter, a somethmg as opposed to nothing, or your words belie 
your meaning — and yourself and Webster, and all others, mean nothing 
else — and to attempt to define it without such meaning is as absiord as 
a distinction made where none exists can make a thing. I believe that 
human spirits are propagated like the body. Do you deny that they 
are .' Who teaches that spirits are created separate from the body and 
put into it at birth. Do you, friend Brittan .? I have never even 
hinted that the spirit ceases to act when it ceases to exist. 

That prayer shows the ridiculous fix in which you place yourselves — 
hence its profanity and mockery. 

Yours truly, B. W. RICHMOND. 



BEITTAN AlfD EICHMOK'D'S DISCUSSION. 

NUMBER TWELVE. 

THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 

Dear Sir : In my last I reviewed the first half of your second series, 
embracing six letters, and I now resume my labors at the point where 
they were discontinued. Very little, however, remaies to be said in 
this rejoinder, since the succeeding ■ letters from you are not properly 
replies. Your number seven attempts to deal with Mr. Austin's facts, 
but it is altogether harmless in its bearing on the present issue. You 
merely repeat the facts — the style, to be sure, is far less orderly and 
impressive than that of the narrative by the witnesses themselves — and 
then you refer to other miscellaneous esamples and conclude without 
any serious attempt to account for my facts or your own. In number 
eight you have several brief allusions to my letter of the same number, 
but there is no earnest effort to dispose of the facts, cited by me, agree- 
ably to any material hypothesis. Portions of the letter, I am sorry to 
say, evince a disposition to trifle with the whole subject, where only 
critical analysis and invincible logic were demanded. You devote some 
half dozen lines in your answer to my ninth letter, and the remainder 
of four wide columns to other matters, chiefly to facts which illustrate 
the power of the mind to produce and to remove several forms of dis- 
ease. As I did not attempt to prove that all sick people are cured by 
the agency of spirits, it will be seen that your whole effort, so far as it 
relates to the question under discussion, amounts to nothiiig but a 
superficial sophism. I will endeavor to make this apparent to the 
reader. 

I bring witnesses to prove that a person who is not a physician is, 
unexpectedly to himself and everybody else, made the instrument of 
curing — without medicine, and by a particular process unknown to the 
faculty — another person, whom the doctors had given up to die. The 
evidence is so conclusive that the fact is not disputed by any one. Now 
Dr. Richmond, who may be interested to have people cured after what 
are denominated the professional mod(s, is unwilling to accept the only 
inference which seems to be warranted by the facts. And bow does he 
manage to escape the legitimate conclusion ? Does he undertake to 



A DISCUSSION. 357 

question the credibility of the witnesses ? No. Does lie attempt to 
prove that the patient was cured by some other process than the one 
described by those who were present on the occasion ? No ; nothing 
of the sort. But the Doctor proceeds precisely on this wise : He tells 
a story of one of his own patients who wanted physic ; he accordingly 
administered the thirtieth dilution oi: mix vomica, describing at the same 
time as its specific action the effect he desired to produce. The result 
sought for was obtained ; and now it only remains for the readers of 
this discussion to arrive at the implied conclusion, which may read thus : 
All the cures alleged to have been wrought, in different ages and coun- 
tries, by Spiritual power, have wholly resulted from the action of the 
patient's own mind on the organs and functions of the body. I know 
how powerfully the mental action influences the physical condition, but 
this assumption is utterly unfounded. The promises and the conclusion 
sustain no relation, however remote, and yet precisely this inference 
was intended to be drawn, or the illustration is unsuitable, and my cor- 
respondent wrote apparently without a purpose. In these letters the 
citations from history are given as usual in alopathic doses in the crude 
form, but the logic, which is the highest trituration, is used homco- 
paihically. 

The reader can not fail to observe that my eorrespoDdent has, in real- 
ity, abandoned his position. When the facts and arguments for Spirit- 
ualism elicit no reply, it is virtually conceded that i/iey ca7i not be met. 
Three letters, each of an unusual length, have been written and pub- 
lished wherein no real effort has been made to explain, on mundane 
principles, the facts offered in elucidation of the Spiritual theory. Of 
course Dr. Richmond knows full well what the circumstances of the case 
require. He has undertaken to refute the facts and arguments adduced 
in support of a given proposition, but instead of this he wanders off in 
another direction. The whole course is evasive. My friend neither 
attempts to disprove the facts nor to show that the deductions therefrom 
are illogical — in short there is no direct reply. As no effort is made to 
invalidate the reasoning based on the acknowledged facts, and especially 
as we have called three times without eliciting an answer, the case may 
be permitted, as the lawyers say, to go " by default." 

A few general observations will conclude, on my part, this protracted 
correspondence. I need not say how impossible it is for me to accept 
your views. I can not relinquish the hopes and aspirations which make 
human life truly significant. The assurance of a future existence is, 
with the writer, a Spiritual instinct which, perhaps, requires no further 



358 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

outward confirmation. It may be thus with you, but if it be so, I know 
not how you can dispute the proximity of the Spirit-world to this, or 
remain insensible to the presence of its inhabitants. I can not resist 
the conviction, that without some revelation of the other life — some 
tangible demonstration of its reality — the mass of men can have no 
hope. They live on the plane of the senses, and to be convinced of 
the reality of that life, the understanding must be addressed through 
the ordinary avenues and modes of sensation. In the absence of such 
a demonstration, nothing remains for them but to sit in darkness and 
nourish their despair. They can but sa}"- with Job, in the period of 
his hopelessness, " I have said to corruption, Thou art my father ; to 
the worm. Thou art my mother and my sister. And where is now my 
hope.'' As for my hope, who shall see it ?" In what respect is our 
condition more tolerable } If you are right, no voice has ever spoken 
from beyond the grave. This is distinctly implied and expressed in 
what you have written. From the beginning of this controversy you 
have boldly asserted that all Spiritual experiences, so-called, belong to, 
and have their origin in, the earth-life, and that what have been de- 
nominated miracles may all be accounted for without admitting the 
agency of spirits in their production. And why not ? If you can thus 
account for the modern phenomena, you certainly will not be at a loss 
to explain the ancient wonders. Any principles of science or laws of 
external Nature which can be made to sustain the human body, and 
other equally ponderable objects, mid air — now a very common occur- 
rence — will surely suiEce to account for the so-called miracle of walk- 
ing on the water. Thus it will appear that if the " church favors your 
views," it must be at the expense of the Spiritual claims of Christianity. 
Indeed, if the views you advocate are founded in truth, it must inevita- 
bly follow, that no revelation, in the sense in which the word is usually 
employed, was ever given to man, and all the world's professedly in- 
spired teachers have been vain impostors or visionary enthusiasts. No 
spirit, say you, has ever manifested its presence to mortals, or given 
one token of renewed life. The countless millions of sentient beings 
come and go and are forgotten ; they are unfolded like the buds in spring- 
time, and like the seared leaves of autumn they fall unnumbered to the 
earth. A lethean spell has bound all that have lived, from first to last, 
and as the living generations pass away in solemn succession, they be- 
come silent and voiceless forever-more ! And what is the Universe, on 
this hypothesis, but one mighty sepulcher — a monument to cover the 
ashes of the dead ! And what are the records of all human thought 



. A DISCUSSION. 359 

and experience, but the epitaphs which men have written for their own 
souls. You may say that man continues to exist — that the spirit is 
immortal — But what proofs have you to offer, if you deny those we have 
been called to consider .? Show us " the evidence of things not seen," 
if it does not at all consist in the facts we have cited. If you can sweep 
away all these, and every similar demonstration of the life to come, it 
is worse than idle to expect the rational mind to find repose, in the ex- 
ercise of a calm and beautiful faith grounded on your naked assumption. 
The reader will readily perceive that we are far from having arrived 
at one conclusion, from our observations of the same phenomena. We 
are advocates for two systems which stand in bold and vivid contrast. 
And here let me briefly notice some of the points of distinction. You 
appear to comprehend the general principles of causation within the 
domain of mere temporalities ; I apprehend that they exist in the 
realm of invisible and vital realities — in the Spirit-world. Your spec- 
ulations make the essential reality of things to consist in their exter- 
nal forms and phenomenal appearances ; I am disposed to regard all 
outward, physical developments as instructive and sublime revelations 
of the existence and operative power of inward forces, and spiritual 
entities. The fundamental difference between Materialism and Spirit- 
ualism is especially manifest in what they respectively teach concern- 
ing the spirit. You, indeed, suppose it to be endowed with very 
exalted powers, but you limit the exercise of those powers to the life 
that now is, while I venture to presume that all its faculties are pre- 
served, quickened and intensified by the transition. You insist that 
the spirit becomes inert the moment its corporeal relations are inter- 
rupted ; the superior power which it was admitted to possess, while in 
the flesh, is alleged to be lost in the process that dissolves the body, 
and the Grodlike nature becomes the slave of mere material forces and 
physical conditions. It has no longer any voluntary power of resist- 
ance, but like unconscious and lifeless things must go wherever the 
laws of material gravitation determine ; while, on the contrary, the 
Spiritual philosophy teaches that immortalized human beings possess an 
increased power over mere material forces, and that instead of being 
driven about like inanimate objects, as you presume, they are privileged 
to roam at pleasure through the realms of space. Your views tend 
to interrupt the most endearing relations of life ; on the other hand, 
my own aim to preserve and perfect those relations. You place a 
cold seal on the eloquent lip, and the strongest affection is silent and 
expressionless ; but when the spirit of the divine Philosophy touches, 



360 BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

the palsied lip, love is eloquent again and speaks ■with an immortal 
tongue. You ma,ke the objects of my highest hope, the worthless cre- 
ations of a distempered fancy ; but in the light of the Spii itual era, 
they are revealed as the magnets which attract me to the Heavens. 
You insist that no earth-born spirit has ever indicated its presence 
here, after its separation from the body ; I devoutly believe that such 
proofs of the presence of spirits have been given in all ages, and that 
they do now frequently occur. You profess to have no tangible evi- 
dence that the beautiful affinities which unite kindred natures here, 
have any existence hereafter, or at least that such existence can, by a 
possibility, be made known to men ; but the Spiritual philosophy im- 
mortalizes all true love, all real beauty, all essential perfection, and 
whatever else the s-pirit does most delight to cherish and adore. The 
inspiration that fired the soul of Keats descends on us, and we feel of 

a truth that 

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever," 

because everything that hath life in itself — all things that possess ele- 
ments of the Divine excellence are deathless, and must live for a fel- 
lowship with God. Your theory cuts me off from communion with 
Heaven, and hurls my spirit down to the scenes of its earthly grovel- 
ing, while the Spiritual philosophy lifts me up again and honors me, all 
imperfect as I am, with the companionship of angel?. Your faith, if 
such it may be called, deprives me of my kindred and friends ; but my 
own restores their presence, and makes them the guardians of my life. 
You locate Heaven far away — at an inconceivable distance — but the 
faith which the Spirits teach comes to me, as Jesus of Nazareth came 
to the humblest disciple, to bring Heaven to my immediate presence, 
and to make me conscious that I sleep and wake within the sacred pre- 
cints of its mystical courts. 

" Sublime Philosophy ! 

Thou art the Patriarch's ladder, reaching Heaven, 

And bright with beckoning angels." 

It can not be denied that the prevailing Spiritual phenomena are 
making a deep and lasting impression on the minds of thousands, who 
until recently were without hope in the world. Men who have listened 
from their earliest childhood lo the appointed religious teachers, and 
yet were utterly faithless, with respect to the future life, have been over- 
whelmed, perchance in a single hour, with a conviction so deep that its 
record shall be effaced from the soul no more forever. I speak soberly 
iand truly wht n I say, that this has been the experience of thousands, 



A DISCUSSION. 361 

and that each succeeding day adds many to the number. The Spiritual 
Manifestations, in this country, have doubtless converted more intelli- 
gent skeptics and materialists to a belief in revelation and the future 
life, in the short space of three years, than have been convinced by the 
preaching of all Christian sects in the last quarter of a century. I am 
conscious of the full import of this lenguage, and would not have it 
understood as a mere hyperbolism. I am quite satisfied that the facts 
will warrant the most literal construction. And, as the phenomena 
are multiplied on every hand, Error trembles in its dusty abodes ; its 
altars are shaken, and rays of Divine light, more fatal than the enven- 
omed shafts of an armed host, penetrate the thick darkness, and Mate- 
rialism, at last, goes reeling and wailing to its final doom. I am aware 
that many learned Doctors have tenderly cherished it, even in Christ's 
name, but in spite of all their sympathy it is beginning to be convulsed 
with mortal agonies. In its dying anguish it bites the very dust, and 
frantically grasps at all earthly things. Not a few who were once num- 
bered with its best friends, shocked with the terrors of its smitten form 
and distorted visage, have fled from its presence. Some faithful disci- 
ples, I doubt not, will remain behind to witness the last struggle, and 
to smooth the wrinkled brow, made doubly terrible by the reflection of 
a, thousand errors and the dominion of all earthly lusts. It is well that 
the old Materialism should thus die, with no hope of a resurrection. 
It was born of the Earth, at a period when the human mind was dark 
and faith and hope were weak, and it is a satisfaction to know, that in 
committing it to the earth again we violate none of its affinities. 

It is not pretended that you have explicitly, and in so many words, 
denied the existence of the Spirit after the dissolution of the body, but 
it has seemed to me that this was clearly implied, if it be not fully ex- 
pressed, in what you have written ; first, and especially, in the alleged 
incapacity of spirits to exercise the powers which they are admitted to 
possess during their earth-life ; and, secondly, in the general assumption 
of the impossibility of receiving any revelation from the woild of Spirits. 
If, however, in the preceeding contrast, or in any part of this discus- 
sion, I have misapprehended your views, I can safely depend on you 
and our readers to make the necessary corrections. Moreover, in citing 
facts to illustrate the Spiritual theory — it may be proper to observe, 
what indeed must be self-evident to the reader already : I have often 
fou.nd it necessary to rely chiefly on the testimony of others, and in 
such cases I, of course, only vouch for the reputed veracity and sup- 
posed competency of the witnesses. If, therefore, the facts in any given 



362 ERITTAN AND RICHMOND. 

example should, hereafter, prove to be otherwise than tliey are recorded, 
I desire that such alleged fact or facts may be discarded by yourself 
and the reader, as freely as I have already rejected many of yours be- 
cause I deemed them irrelevant to the subject. I frankly confess that 
many things for which a Spiritual oriijin is claimed are, apparently at 
least, of little value, but I trust that time will explode our errors and 
establish us in the truth. The dim shadows of coming events which 
fall obscurely on our spirits To-day, may yet stand unvailed, in our 
presence and before the world, as living, tangible and divine realities. 

In conclusion, I desire you to accept my grateful acknowledgments 
for the general good feeling manifested in all your letters, and allow me 
to assure you that in this respect, at least, I shall remember our cor- 
respondence with eminent satisfaction. We may yet " see eye to eye," 
and be enabled to contemplate the great mysteries of our being from a 
similar position. The clouds, which conceal the objects of our faith and 
the sources of our inspiration, will, ere long, pass away and leave the hea- 
vens, bending in benediction over us, clear as the smile of the Universal 
Father. 

Hoping that the success of your professional labors may be commen- 
surate with your personal desires and the prayers of suffering humanity 
for relief, and that the measure of life, with you, may be crowned with 
the greatest good to others and the highest pleasure to yourself, I shall 
ever remain, dear sir, Faithfully yours, 

S. B. BEIT TAN. 



REPLY TO S. B. BRITTAN. 

NUMBER TWELVE. 

Dear Sir : In closing this controversy it becomes necessary to reply 
to what you term a review of my views, facts and arguments. You 
first alllude to "Mr. Austin's facts." I reply, First, That those oc- 
currences were always connected with " -f^.", the mcdiuvi., and no more 
indicate that a spirit performed them through her, than the falling of an 
apple from a tree indicates that a spirit with unseen hands pulled it off; 
the only logical deduction from them is that they were caused by the 
condition — mental and physical — of the medium acting by the mind 
through some agency which enabled her to move matter. Second, The 
spirit, " Ann Merrick," as she is called, is said to have left the body of 
a most degraded Irish woman who died in a hospital ; and on the the- 
ory that like attracts like, how could she be so completely en rapport 
with "H.", a pure minded, intellectual and highly connected woman } 
and further, she claimed that Messrs. Cowles and Snow were kindred 
spirits of her's — she was going to spend a night with them, " he! he ! " 
and after conducting herself as no decent ghost would do, she winds off 
by playing " Yankee Doodle," and, as you suggest, ascended into a 
higher sphere. How do you reconcile this with the theory that liki' 
spirits attract like. Third, The ghost of" Ann," as seen by "H.", 
betrays the whole facts ; it speaks for itself. D was, beyond a cavil, a 
spectral illusion — a reflection from the mind of the Doctor who " laid 
her arm across her breast.'''' " Yankee Doodle " and " Sweet Home," 
connected with the music, shows that singing to be the work of the 
mind of " H." You say that I trijle with the facts. I ocly reply that 
no power of mine can so perfectly trifle with this whole subject, as do 
the ludicrous combinations of conduct and character contained in that 
letter. 

You nest allude to curing sick people by spirit influence. You cited 
two classes of facts. One class who were made sick by spirits, and 
cured by Christ and the Apostles through the aid of the Holy ghost, 
and another class of sick persons who are cured by spirits, they having 
turned doctors ; and the two wings of this Spiritual army exhibit the 
charming sight of jerking and foaming devils being expelled from the 
bodies of men and women by a holy charm. Seven in one litter went 



364 A DISCUSSION. 

out of Mary Magdalen, and devils in the bodies of men turned into doc- 
tors and curing the most alarming fits and even making 7ie7j) lines for 
poor bumauity. My friend Brittan tells me that the spirits acting 
through mediums cure serious maladies, and must be good spirits, while 
Rev. Charles Beecher and the Rev. Sunderland tell us the spirits of 
the present day are low, had spirits — a sort of evil genius — who have 
entered the bodies of men, as in the days of Christ, and made them "^'er^, 
and foam and tear themselves^'''' and they are improperly termed devils 
in our Bible, says Mr. Beecher, and after Christ had established the 
divinity of his mission by " by casting out such devils," these devils, or 
low order of spirits, are back here — have turned fidJlers and doctors, 
and are playing " Yandee Doodle " and curing the sick. This is an 
age of progress. If these be the kind of devils that Christ cast out, 
they seem to have improved upon their privileges. If Mr. Beecher has 
not burned the fingers of the Church, then I am no judge of hot irons. 
The cures by the spirits already go as far as Christ's cures went, facta 
as well attested as his, and the spirits afiirm that they are verily the 
spirits of friends, brothers, mothers, wives, sisters and children, returned 
to us — they speak kindly, give good advice in most cases, and still Mr. 
Beecher and Mr. Sunderland afiirm they are cheats — low scamps that 
lie and oheat and are called devils in our Bible. 

You have not shown that spirits cause disease at all — you have shown 
that persons are suddenly cured by the aid of persons not physicians — 
and I have met you by a similar class of facts — ^just as wonderful — 
clearly the work of minds in the body acting each upon the other by 
sympathy. I have before me a still larger number of cures, the work of 
various influences, and eff"ecting cures as marvelous and sudden as those 
recorded in the Bible or attested by Spiritualists. I admit both class 
of facts, but they present no more claims to a spiritual origin than hun- 
dreds of others clearly not attributable to such a cause. The cases ot 
possession, cured by Christ, show nothing more clearly, so far as symp- 
toms are described, than that they were cases of epilepsy, hysteria, lunacy 
and various spasmodic aff"ections. The present age, I apprehend, know 
quite as much of pathology, anatomy and physiology, as Christ and his 
apostles, and I admit, T^ithout hesitation, that my veneration for their 
medical and anatomical knowledge is much the same that I have for the 
knowledge of Moses and Aaron on the subjects of geology and plane- 
tary motion. Josephus says he saw a countryman of his casting out 
devils and evil spirits ; he held a poisonous root, fixed to a magical ring, 
to the nose of the demoniac, and drew out the spirit through his nostrils ; 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 365 

and to show that he truly came out, he told the spirit to go into a basiu 
of water set for the purpose a foot off — which he did, and upset the 
basin and spilled the water. 

In my citations of wonderful cures, I gave a variety of facts, showing 
the influence that often followed from apparently inadequate causes ; 
and the case of the patient affected by nux vomica has many analogou.s 
facts. A patient once ate the paper on which the prescription was 
written instead of getting the medicine and it acted as a cathartic ; the 
effect followed the idea in the mind. Another patient took bread pills 
and was told that they' were mercury^ and salivatioyi followed. You 
cite various cures and claim them as spiritual ; I cite similar cures and 
show their cause, which completely cuts up your pretense of spirit influ- 
ence. That all the cures that have been claimed as spiritual are the 
result of the action of the patient's own mind," is your conclusion, and 
not mine ; many cases occur where the cure is the work of some other 
mind acting on the nervous and mental system of the patient. A man 
deaf and dumb for many years, while listening to the jokes and tricks 
of Grrimaldi, during an uproar of laughter, broke out in a loud voice, 
" What a d — d funny fellow !" He could, from that hour, both speak 
and hear. The general mirth of the occasion excited a strong desire to 
dpeak ; he made a great effort, and spoke. This Grrimaldi became old 
and nearly lost his power to walk, but on being told his son was dead, 
rushed up a long flight of stairs with the agility of a child, and told his 
wife her child was dead. Now suppose that I set up a claim for a spir- 
itual origin for all such facts, and quote as an evidence of miracles that 
the " lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak " — would it not be a 
most profound evidence that spirits existed in a future state and had 
returned here on errands of mercy. These magnetic nsental cures 
among nervous persons will be indefinitely extended in the space 
of ten years among Spiritualists, and let Mr. Beecher prove, if he will, 
that it is the work of devils, such as Christ cast out, perhaps people will 
believe him. 

With characteristic sagacity you claim that I " have abandoned my 
position " — " that my course is evasive " — and as assertions are cheap 
I meet these with an assertion. I have not abandoned my positions, or 
evaded your facts. You have not presented one scintilla of evidence 
that spirits either produce or cure disease ; your bare assumption that 
certain facts indicate such a cause, is assumption only. Step by step I 
have met all your facts by parallel facts, that have confounded and de- 
stroyed the claim, to spirit influence in any class of these phenomena, 



366 A DISCUSSION. 

and when you wind up a reveiw by mere assertion that your facts have 
" elicited no reply," I conclude that you have a heart full of that char- 
ity which enables you to believe all thhigs on your own side of the ques- 
tion. You have not given either facts or arguments to show that these 
occurrences are spiritual — but you, my friend, with all others who agree 
with you, stand on a bare assumption. You assume that spirits can 
return here — that they can sjpeak with voices — show us lights — move 
ponderable bodies — cure diseases — and what is your explanation of 
these phenomena ? Why you assume that they act on the electrical cur- 
rents of the ear to produce sound ; you " conjecture " that they " de- 
compose the watery vapor in the air " to produce lights ; and how they 
move tables or chairs, or cure the sick, you do not even hint at the 
mode of action ; while these spirits are, as you claim, with you, yet tJiey 
vouch no esplanation. They admit that they used a " lattery " to 
write Hebrew with, and when these celestial visitants condescend to 
show themselves., as they often do, lo ! and behold ! they are dressed up 
in their '' Sunday's best " — have on " oriental costumes," beards, coats, 
robes, hats, boots, caps, blue coats, gray and green — and on this point 
I press my inquiry, Why has this whole discussion passed and not one 
word or allusion has escaped you upon this momentous point ? These 
spirits claim that they can show themselves ; they have done so ; and 
when we put the knife of criticism to them, they vanish into thin air — 
resolve into mere specters — mental shadows — " airy nothings, that syl- 
lahlc men''s namesP Your facts I do not deny, " your reasoning " on 
the facts to show that these persons seen and heard and felt, are spirits, 
I have not been able to find ; but I have arrayed facts from all history 
that break the force of every assumption. 

The opinions of ghosts and their doings as taught to-day, are identi- 
cal with those entertained by the Pagan world three thousand years 
ago. A sorceress directed Ulysses to go to a certain island, pour warm 
blood on the ground, and wave his sword above it, and the spirits of the 
departed heroes would appear to him ; and they did, and he talked 
with them, with his friends and dead companions. To him it was an 
evidence that they still existed ; to me it illustrates the law of mental 
reflection. It is asserted that Christ rose from the dead ; Mary mis- 
took him for the gardener, implying that he was clothed. Once he ate 
fish idih his disciples ; twice he appeared in their midst when the door 
was shut ! Once Thomas put his hands in his side ; once he vmished 
from their sight when they sat at sufper. Once he declared that he was 
not a spirit., but had "• flesh and hones'''' ! Once they talked with him 



BRITTAN AND RICHMOND. 367 

by the wayside, and did not know him. Once he asked them to dine 
by the sea shore ; they knew him but dare not say so. Once he was 
parted from them and ascended into glory. To the religious world the 
above facts are of momentous value. May I put a few inquiries to the 
public on the above facts : Did that " blood and bones " body pass 
through the door when it was shut } Did that " flesh and bones " body 
vanish out of their sight at supper .? Had his wounds in his side healed 
when Thomas thrust in his hand.? If " blood and water " came out 
through the wound of the spear at his death, had it been re-supplied 
when Thomas saw him .' Was it his body of " flesh and bones " that 
parted from the disciples and ascended into heaven ? Or, did he ap- 
pear to them in a spiritual body, at supper, by the wayside, by the sea- 
side, when he vanished from their sight, and when he appeared in their 
midst while the door tvas shut? Did his spiritual body eat the fish with 
his disciples ? Do spirits eat fish } Was it his spiritual body that as- 
cended into heaven .' If so, what became of the old body of" blood 
and bones " t If he was mistaken by Mary for the gardener, he was 
c/o^^e(^, of course ; men don't work in Judea in a nude state. If he 
was dressed, had he on real clothing, and where did he get it } I ask 
of the world a solution of these difficulties. Taken literally ^ the various 
appearances of Christ, to his disciples and others, can not be reconciled 
or explained. They irretrievably contradict and confound each other. 
It is claim c;d that his old body of " flesh and bones " arose from the 
dead, the wounds in his side were felt and seen ; he ascended, as they 
affirm, and must have dropped his corporeal body. 

There is but one solution of these various statements : The whole 
narration, with all its facts, to my mind, demonstrates the whole to have 
been a spectral illusion — a mental refijedion / for the appearance of this 
spirit to the disciples accords with that of every other ghost on the 
records of history. It had on garments — ate — talked — vanished from 
sight — appeared in the room suddenly when the doors were shut, and 
exhibited all the evidences of an inta.ngihle^ imaginary being. 

This criticism will, I am aware, be regarded as an act of great auda- 
city, but truth is truth, and as an honest man I feel bound to put my 
opinions where they can be refuted if they are false. I ask no immu- 
nity from criticism. I have carefully compared the above facts of 
spirit-seeing with every other on record, and the result has been that 
one of the pillars of the world's faith and religious belief has been 
swept from my mind, viz., the resurrection of Christ. The Church will 



368 A Discussion. 

not " favor my views " on many points, I am sure, wlien they under- 
stand me. 

As my theory sweeps away miracles, as taught, and the resurrection 
of Christ, and all the external evidences of our religion, you will ask, 
of course, on what I base my belief in a future life and of a supreme 
being .'' A iiniversal interior consciousness of a future immortality, more 
or less distinct, in all the nations of men that have ever lived. All 
men have had their religion, and it has corresponded to their capacities. 
The " wooden tools " of the Pagan nations, as Carlyle calls them, have 
been of service to mankind. The Jews, God's chosen race, had no 
notion of a future. Christ, who subverted the Jewish worship and 
shook Paganism to its center, was a Platonist in many things. His 
pw/pzHs his grand idea ; his orcZi?zfl.'?ice.s, like the wooden tools of tho 
Pagan, have had their uses. He based his system on simple justice., 
right., love your neighbor as yourself. It is the deepest-soul principle of 
existence, and consciousness makes this so clear that ten thousand reve- 
lations could make it no plainer. Honesty, unalterable right, is the 
only safe course for individuals or nations. Every nation has its ele- 
ments of religion within it, and all history proves that individuals., in 
all nations, rise up and give a new impulse to old ideas, or subvert ex- 
isting systems. Paganism has its various divisions ; the Jewish system 
founded by Moses, and based on sacrifices, was broken by Christ in its 
center ; Fo revolutionized China, about the same time, by a similar set 
of ideas ; Mahomet destroyed the " tribe spirit " of his people, and ren- 
dered them national, and overrun Europe ; Taosse, in Hindostan, about 
the same time, introduced a new system of philosophy and changed the 
religious aspect of his race. Christianity has had its fashions. The 
grand quarrel between Athanasius and Arius still animates the world, 
and, in some sense, is represented by the two great parties — Catholic 
and Protestant. Luther struck a strong blow at Catholicism or abso- 
luteism, while protestantism is dying in its spirit under the power of 
gold, and he is a blind man who does not see that the Christian system 
will change forms, as it has already done, and a nev/ life force — a new 
impetus — be infused into men that will carry them onward and upward. 
Change has been the history of the world, and change it will still be. 
The inner life of the church must be rekindled — the soul element stirred 
— consience quickened — this alone has kept it alive in all ages — its ordi- 
nances can not at presnt be safely abandoned, but they ultimately 
will be, and religion will bo guided by love and reason instead of sects 
and ordinances. The profession to which I belong, at least many of 



EIUTTAX AND RICHMOND. 3G9 

them, believe that nature is running an eternal round ; that we live, and 
die, like the flower; with me a future has always been a reality That 
Grod should usher spirits into the earth by myiiads merely to breathe 
and die, is charging him with converting his own universe into an abor- 
tion — a grand laboratory where spirits are born and blown out for 
amusement ; and, so far as science can demonstrate our immortality, 
it appears to rest on the laws^ of gravitation and planetary motion. The 
thinking, loving soul, the highest element in the universe, forms around 
itself a body of less rarety, and both quit our body of flesh and blood. 
The soul, like the sun in the solar system, insures our eternal existence. 
The higher controls the lower — mind controls the universe — soul, or 
love, is the grand sun center of nature and men. 

Miracles, so called, proved to the Christian world that Christ was 
Grod, and man immortal ; but man has still doubted through all ages, 
Baxter found extra proof in the scenes of witchcraft and devilism, in 
England ; and Cotton Mather found the same proof in the spirits, seen 
and heard and felt in Salem ; and the Spiritualists of to-day find, for the 
first time, tangible proofs of a future existence. 

During the investigations incident to this discussion, I have abandoned 
some of my life cherished opinions, and taken up others that I had 
always disbelieved. I was educated in the belief that spirits could visit 
this earth. I do not now believe it. I never believed in a trinity, as 
taught. I now see clearly that the idea has a foundation in Nature. 
Two forces, father and son — producing a third, or spirit — is the grand 
law of the Universe, and finds its illustratration in sex — male and female 
— in sun and planets — centripetal and centrifugal. Ttiis idea, when 
symbolized, becomes in theology the trinity. AH analogy teaches us 
that these two forces range throughout the planetary universe ; and what 
we observe of our own planet teaches us that all planets are made for- 
the abodes of rational beings, and all beings are under a law of progress, 
from a lower to a higher state — and I infer that all planets have the 
same laws, both physical, mental and moral, that controls ours ; all have 
laws, religion, and science, and the love element involved in the race 
will ultimately control and wield the opposing forces, till all rational 
beings in mind and morals are controlled by it. This discussion is 
nearly closed, and we have differed at every step — yet the spirit of' 
that difference has not been marked by ill temper. 

I regard the race as under the control of universal laws ; you seem to 
to think that we are unfolded by special providences. You think the 
spirit returns or remains after death near the earth ; I think it finds a, 

24 



370 A DISCUSSION. 

residence on the rarer planets lying outward from our earth. I' attrib- 
ute the force that perfbrras these acts to the human mind ; you attribute 
them to the mind of spirits disembodied. Yon regard it as a special 
favor for the good of the race; I regard it, as. a note of p7-eparation 
sounded by the laws of our being to mark the upward movement of tbe 
human race. I think the human mind can will matter ; you think none 
but disembodied minds can perform such an act. I think mind can 
commune with mind through space ; you think spirit minds carry this 
intelligence from place to place. You think the spirits of the departed 
are seen ; I think that all such spirits are our own ideas reflected before 
our mental vision as tangible objects. You think that spirits return 
and cure diseases; I think Beechcr^s devils have nothing to do with such 
cures. 

I conclude that mind will be used as a motive force in mechanical and 
commercial pursuits ; that telegraphing will be mental, in place of the 
wires ; that when our psychological temperament is fully uBfolded, all 
nations will hear in the same tongue, and love and sincerity will guide 
us instead of selfishness and falsehood. 

The world thinks that spiritualism is all trickery, or devilism, and 
will soon disappear. I tlrlnk it a voice from the inner life, imperfect as 
yet, but destined to supersede the church and move the race toward 
higher life. 

To me the discussion has been profitable and agreeable. I am a 
better and stronger man — comprehend God and duty much better — 
and close with the wish that we may both remember that the great object 
of life is Truth. G-od is Truth. Yours truly, 

B. W. EICHMOND. 



APPENDIX. 



RICHMOND'S LETTEKS TO PEOF. BRITTAlSr. 

LETTER I. 

[A.] — Mr. T., to whom this shingle machine was manifested by impres-' 
sio7i, says, he was at a neighbor's house, and some shingle blocks were 
brought in and laid by the fire, for some purpose. While looking at them, 
the method of constructing a machine, so as to shave shingles, with great 
rapidity, was in an instant Hashed on his mind. He drew a diagram, I 
think, and repaired to a shop, and constructed a model, which he exhibited 
to a friend. In turning it, a clacking noise was made by the machinery. 
}3efare this exhibition, at a circle, a peculiar clacking noise was made, but 
left unexplained. This friend, wlien the machine was in motion, remarked 
to Mr. Tiffany, "That is the sound we heard at the circle." When again 
convened, by spirit direction, the circle was treated to the same singular 
sound by what purported to be the Spirit of Swedenborg. Instead of the 
term "hallucinations," used in connection with Mr. T., I should have said 
singularities. He has the strange faculty of thinking on more than one sub- 
ject ; for this the world think him somewhat "out." He has sold already 
jjarts of his right, for ten thousand dollars, and the world will soon cease 
to use such words about a man who has that amount of money. This is a 
singular but reliable fact in the history of inventions. 

[B]. — The diagram, or semi-sphere alluded to, may be found in Kerner's 
Life of Mrs. Hauffe, or the Seeress of Prevost ; for sale by Partridge & Brit- 
tan. The curious will not fail to peruse that book. She was, I think, 
when she made the sun-sphere, in a magnetic sleep. Mr. T. was in his 
normal leaking state when he received that very tangible demonstration, by 
influx, his sliingle-machine. 



LETTER II. 

[C] — An English lady, returning home late in the evening, saw her 
brother, then alive and a soldier in India, walking before her door, dressed 
in his uniform? She remarked to her brother, " there is my brother," and 
he vanished. 

Sli8 received a letter a few months after from her brother, saying, that on 
such a night (the one on which she sav^ his spectre), he dreamed of being 
with her, and meeting her in front of her dwelling. This was a mental re- 
flection; and what should be noticed, he was asleep and she was awake. 

Dr. Dick relates a case, in which a man offered to show his friend the 
Devil ; and to begin w'ith, offered him a pii! of Djtium, w bicli was refused. 



372 APPENDIX. 

He then took a pil! himself, and gave one to his dog ; both fell asleep, and 
at the same moment both master and dog were affected with similar symp- 
toms ; both were evidently dreaming. On awaking, he declared he had 
seen the DcviJ — and that his dog was with him, and saw all that he saw. 

LETTER III. 

[D.] — Mirabeau, when speaking in the French Assembly, on great sub- 
jects, always appeared inspired. At these times, says M. Thiers, his mind 
in an hour performed the work of years. He absorbed the entire Assembly 
into himself, and carried their judgments and hearts with him. Napoleoa 
was a sublime specimen of a quickened genius ; he never reasoned ; logic 
had nothing to do with his conclusions. ' Patrick Henry, when he lighted 
the torch of the Revolution in the Virginia Assembly, his heart and soul 
were suddenly impregnated with a great idea— with a world-wide truth— and 
when he poured out his pent-up fire, the heart of the nation blazed out at the 
touch of truth. John Adams was touched with the holy fire, when he 
selected Washington to lead the American armies. There is a power in 
man at such times that cannot err, if directed to good. These men, and 
thousands like them, I believe to have been inspired. 

LETTER IV. 

[E.] — This autographic writing is curious, if executed by spirits, or by a 
somnambule. They are worthy of being studied. Will you insert a plate 
of the Declaration, and the Chinese writing sent you by Dr. Cory ? 

LETTER V. 

[F.]— Electric storms are periodical. May 23d, 1852, I passed the night 
on the road. The air was full of electricity — moving in vast waves, chains, 
zigzags, and angles. The next night was similar. May 24th, 1853, was 
succeeded by a fearful night — wave on w-ave, and chain on chain of electri- 
city swept over the heavens. The next night was similar. One year pre- 
cisely had elapsed. Much property was destroyed by lightning during these 
nights. In April last, a stream of lightning entered the dwelling of Mr. 
Ruggles, near me, at the west window— struck a hot stove, and moved in a 
circle around its top many times, and passed out the door. The storm 
described in Tel., vol. 2, No. 3, corroborates what I have said of elec- 
tricity. 

[G.] — While these earthquakes were shaking the Mississippi valley, New 
England was ravaged by sinking typhus. Multitudes of men perished by 
it. About this time a new sect appeared in Canada. One of their peculiar- 
ities was that their religious ideas partook of polariiy. Everything good 
lay in a southwest direction. They organized ; passed into the States ; 
visited and quarrelled with the Shakers : passed on, southwest, towards the 
Holy City, covered with rags and fillh — shouting as they went, "praise 
God, praise God !" They disappeared in the valley of the Mississippi. — 
Hoiue''s History. 



LETTER VI. 

[H.]— It will by and by be claimed, that they are not magnetic persons, 
because they appear perfectly normal. 



APPENDIX. 373 

[I.] — Josephus tells us, that Moses had so arranged it, that God could be 
present or not at his sacrifices. The stones on the shoulders of the priests 
were sardonyxes, and when Moses inquired of God by Urim and Thummiai, 
the assembled multitude of Jews and also strangers saw a sudden light dart 
out from these stones. The Greeks called this the Oracle of the Jews. 
The excited multitude, when at tlieir sacrifices, saw the odic-sphere that sur- 
rounds all crystals and precious stones. As the temperament of tlie Jews 
changed, they saw no more of their God. The horse-shoe magnet has just 
such a God, blazing out rays from its two poles. — Josephus, p. 73. 



LETTER VII. 

[J.] — Mr. Sunderland says, in his book on Human Nature, that I attribute 
"power, intelligence, and spirit," to the od-force, nerve-aura, vital-electri- 
city, or the nutritive fluid, as he calls it. Tliis is a mistake : I have only 
mentioned it as an agent of the human mind, and have repeatedly corrected 
that misapprehension. One friend inquires if electricity has a heart, lungs, 
brain, and stomach. It is not a person, but a fluid ; not an intelligence, but 
an instrument used by intelligence. Wliether that intelligence is in the hu- 
man body or out of it, is the question. 



LETTER VIII. 

[K.] — A Quack in New England informed his friends that a certain con- 
sumptive person could be cured, by digging up a dead body, and using a 
substance found growing round his lungs. Green vegetable matter was 
found growing in the coffin, when disinterred. One of Pliny's ghosts, men- 
tioned in his letter to Sura, was connected with a skeleton buried in the 
yard. The susceptibility of some persons to the influence of grave-yards, or 
the resting-place of dead bodies, is remarkable. - 

[L.] — Mr. Sunderland, in his Book of Human Nature, remarks, that I call 
this intelligence an "indefinable somehow," having "spite," &c. By 
noticing this expression in the form of a query, the reader will see that Mr, 
Sunderland in his criticisms is capable of a most expansive littleness. 



LETTER IX. 

[M.] — This medium is the one who was said to be fastened to the _^oor. 
On inquiry, it turns out that she sunk back in her chair, and was stuffy 
about being moved. Report says, that she recently gave her husband a 
striking demonstration of spirit presence. He was a little skeptical, and the 
idea " obsessed" her that he might be cuffed into the kingdom. 



LETTER X. 

[N.] — Similar symptoms frequently appeared among the recent converts 
of the Westley's ; they called it "possession by the Devil," and often 
prayed with the patients till they went out ; simply cured them, as the 
dancers were cured by music, or sound. 

[O.] — So intense did the excitement become in Morah, that the parents 
actually saw all these facts as real occurrences. Saw the Devil come, pre- 
pare, and mount the children on beasts, and start off in one grand cavalcade 
for the mountain ; and still they returned, and found their children in bed. 



374 



APPENDIX. 



The reflected innate followed the idea in the mind of the parents. What 
the children believed to occur m their sleep, the parents saw take place 
when awake. Mental reflection explains most perfectly all tiiese wonders. 
This was actually a caravan of children made of ideas, mounted on heasts 
of the same sort. The Devil had on " gray coat, red stockings, high hat, 
with various-colored linen wrapped around it, and garters of peculiar 
length," and he wore a "red beard." Why have not those clothes been 
burned off in that lake of " fire and brimstone ]" 

Mental reflection explains the above specters as it does all others. 

Will Dr. Buchanan tell me what historic ghost is not explained, by this 
mental reflection. 

Recent accounts of the Yeziders, in tiie N. Y. Tribune, state that spectre- 
seeing is a C(mim{)n symptom among them. Tlie writer was shown a stone, 
where one of their chief men held talks with an angel that appeared to him. 



LETTER XII. 

[P.] — Where lime-water is drank cholera is most fatal, owing to its quality 
of promoting the decomposition of vegetable and animal matter. Tliis ex- 
plains why soap induces sickness in times of epidemics. Howard found the 
Turkish Lazarettos infested with the plague ; the lime-wall being covered 
with a green fikh. Tiie Jewish houses, in a leprous state, were marked 
by the same green Imie. Lime is not the best preventive to infection. 
The walls of houses should be washed with a strong solution of salt; filth 
should be removed from cities, and salt thrown over the ground. Salt 
should be freely used in sickly periods, and our bodies daily covered with 
oil, to prevent the rapid evolution of heat in the skin, and protect it from the 
atmosphere. All disease is a slow combustion iu the blood and capillaries. 



SECOND SERIES. 
REPLY II. 

[A.]— It is represented in various places in history, that spirits eat solid 
food. Luther's Devil ate nuts ; and a lady recently in my hearing defended 
tlie idea. The angels who visited Abram ate with'him — partook of the food 
which he ate. Angels and spirits, in all history, are represented and seen 
by men, dressed up in garments. Senator Wade recently defended the pro- 
priety of that idea ; asserting that the opinion that spirits went to heaven in 
a nude state was ridiculous. 



REPLY III. 

[B.] — Sir W'alter Scott has a case in which a sailor was killed by his 
eaptam ; and when dying, he exclaimed to his captain, " I will never leave 
the ship !" Sure enough, the ghost of poor Bill was seen by all the sailors, 
and by the captain. Frequently he would run out on the yard-arm before 
them, or up a mast ; and to the captain he was continually present. He 
resolved to drown himself to get rid of the ghost. He leaped into the sea, 
sunk, and as he rose he clapped his hands, and shouted, " I see him yet !" 
This, like all such cases, is explained by mental reflection. 



APPENDIX. 375 

[C] — 1st. For " His writing begins in the middle of the 9th verse," read 
"In the middle of a line." 

2d. For " thus giving the beginning instead of the 11th," read " the be- 
ginning of the 12tli, instead of the end of the 11th." 

3d. For " there,'- read " three." 

4th. For " The two whole lines published in the Telegraph contained 
parts of verses 10th, 11th, and 12th," read " parts of the 10th, 11th, and the 
line at the bottom is a transposed part of verse 12th, its beginning, but it 
ought to have been the end of the 11th." 

5th. For " abominations," read " abomination." 

REPLY IV. 

[D.] — The "Dark Day" in New England was foretold by an old hag, as 
she was called. The legislature of Connecticut was in session, and had to 
light candles. Fowls went to roost ; and the impression was, that the day 
of judgment had come. Some member moved an adjournment. Col. Dav- 
enport remarked, that if it was that day, he wished to be found doing his 
duty ; and called for candles, and moved to proceed to business. 

fE.] — Just before the destruction of Jerusalem, " when multitudes of the 
people had come to the feast of unleavened bread, on the 8th day of the 
month Nisir, at the 9th hour of the night, so great a light shone round the 
altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day-time; which light 
lasted for half an hour." " At the same feast a heifer brought forth a Iamb 
in the midst of the temple." — Josephus, p. 557. 

[F.] — When these lakes are seen, a small shrub is magnified into a tree ; 
and a stone a few feet off appears to be half a mile distant, and is some- 
times magnified into a tall monument. 



REPLY V. 

[G.] — The quotations from Josepbus respecting the Urim and Thummim, 
(it signifies " light and perfection") clearly indicate that the Egyptian 
priests, and that Moses was acquainted with the fact, that crystals were sur- 
rounded by a sphere or light — as proved by Baron Von Reichenbach — and 
that certain persons could, in an excited state, see this sphere. They used 
this kpovvledge to huinbug the people. 

[H.] — A Catholic, about to be hung, had his feet supported by the white 
hands of the Virgin for two days. They then tried to despatch him by the 
sv/ord, but the same hand turned it aside. — Dowling''s Roinanism. 

Among the miracles of the middle ages, pious Catholics attest on oath, 
that they saw hlood drop from the wafer when in the priest's hands. Others 
declare " they saw Christ, in the form of a little boy, sitting on the altar." 
Another asserts " he saw Christ in the form of a child." — Dowling. 

A Jew having received the wafer from a lady, stabbed it with his knife. 
It bled. Finally, he threw the wafer into a cauldron of boiling water, which 
turned to blood, and a cross arose from the water, and Christ was seen dying 
on the cross ! ! ! — Doivling\s Romanism. 

" The holy, house of the Virginof Loretto is located in a small town in 
the Pope's dominions. This is said to be the house where the Virgin was 
born, and was carried by angels, through the air, from Nazareth lo Lo- 
retto." This compares well with Philip's ride to Azotus. — See Dowling on 
Miracles. 



376 APPENDIX. 

REPLY VI. 

[I.] — I regret that you are not pleased with this sample of my praying. 
My friends think it the best prayer I ever made. 

[J.] — Professor Buchanan asserts the existence of an organ of spectral 
illusion. If so, it annihilates all ghosts. Professor Fishbough, in the Macro- 
cosm, says, mind comes in contact with gross matter through a subtle fluid. 
Then mind in the body wills matter. Professor Britton teaches the law of 
En-rapport, which completely unravels all the communications and intelli- 
gences from pretended spirits. 



REPLY VII. 

[K.] — Rev. Mr. Caldwell relates the following of his father. He began 
to act strangely ; drove the family from the house, except this son ; locked 
the doors, and said to the boy, " No\y listen. I have a set of spirits up in the 
wall there, and they sing for me." The lad listened, and soon he too heard 
the singing in the wall. The voices sung to a period, and then stopped, 
and struck up a new tune. The first tune that he clearly recognized, was 
" Molly, hang the kettle on." He also heard these voices in the open 
air. After this conversation with Mr. C, I called on a sick patient, 
a child near two years old. Its mother had been watching it, while asleep 
in the cradle. She had fallen asleep, and was roused from her slumber 
by the sound of sweet voices over-head, in her room. She arose from 
her couch, went to the child ; it was asleep. She returned, and sat 
down, wondering if she herself was not asleep. She again heard the voices 
singing over her head, most sweet and delightful music; it continued for 
some minutes. The tunes she did not recognize. She regarded it as a to- 
ken of her child's death. At that time it was not dangerous, but has since 
died. This I call mental music. 



REPLY X. 

[N.] — Earthquakes begin to appear in every part of our globe. The 
winters, loo, in various parts of the country, the Pacific Coast, and the West 
of Europe, have been intensely cold. 

[0.] — We are on the borders of a universal period of sickness. Cholera, 
Plague, and Yellow and Typhus Fevers will ravage the world in the space 
of a few years. Vastly more males will die than females. One year will 
not pass before our city authorities will give vastly more attention to clean- 
liness of streets and by-lanes than at present, 

[P.] — If these manifestations are a Providence, then Divine goodness has 
failed, in introducing all similar Providences — as something similar has oc- 
curred in all ages. A. J. Davis says, that it is an invention of Benjamin 
Franklin and the Spirit of a scientific German. 

[Q.] — Dr. Dick and Walter Scott concluded that all specters could be 
accounted for on natural principles. They confounded the thi-ee varieties, 
and mistook the true explanation of all specters. 

[R.] — Rev. Alexander Caldwell informs me that during the revolutionary 
war, a British officer was ordered to active duty. When absent about 36 
hours, he came in person into the midst of his brother oflicers, dressed in 
military coat and armor. They all saw him, and asked why he returned. 
He replied, '' I am shot" — " take care of my boy" — " the title to his pro- 



APPENDIX. 377 

perty is in such a city, street, and house, in an iron chest." It turned out as 
ihe spectre told them. He was shot at the moment or hour of his return, 
and these facts rushed through his mind in the deat.H-agony, and produced 
by en-rapport the mental reflection as above. The above fact was pub- 
lished in the English journals, and reminds one of Christ's returning and 
talking with his disciples. 

A lad was left at home by his mother. He came rushing into the house, 
saying his mother had come in before him, with a new hat and ostrich 
feathers on it. A full week after, the mother returned with just such a hat. 
He saw the spectre a week before the hat was bought. His mind, en- 
rapport with hers, produced the image. 



REPLY XII. 

[S.] — The miracle mentioned by Josephus was performed in the presence 
ot'the Emperor Vespasian and the royal family. 

[T.] — The expression is " flesh and bones.'" Quoting from memory, I 
have it " blood and bones." If Christ did not ascend with his body of 
"flesh and bones," where and when did he drop it, and what became of his 
garments in the ascension ? Did they fall, like Elijah's mantle, or did 
he go up with them all on — coat, pants, hat, and sandals'? The Spirits of 
Paradise must have been amazed at his plebeian appearance. The resur- 
rection and ascension of Christ will be abandoned by the civilized world, as 
soon as they comprehend the law which explains the occurrences of the 
New Testament. 



TO THE READEE. 



In discussing new phenomena, the human mind should never be guided by 
past or present opinions ; for opinions change, and have their fashions, as 
well as everything else. In the course of two centuries, the race have been 
obliged to abandon one opinion after another, which had been cherished for 
ages ; and new discoveries, and new ideas, are pressing so rapidly upon our 
attention, that one is scarcely understood, and put in motion for the benefit 
of man, before another demands our investigation. I have become con- 
vinced, during the discussion of the subjects connected with these letters, 
that mind, in less than half a century, will supersede steam, air, and electri- 
city, as a force-agent. The universe is a chain, and the relation of man to 
man, and mind to mind, are becoming better understood ; and what has here- 
tofore been regarded as the influence of spirit-minds, on minds in the body, I 
think will turn out to be the work of one human mind operating on another, 
by sympathetic rapport. 

Because a certain set of facts are not understood, is no reason for believ- 
ing that they are caused by departed spirits, or demons let loose from pan- 
demonium. The world in all ages have reasoned, that all occurrences not 
comprehended, were to be attributed to these two causes. The ghosts and 
demons, that have pretended to visit our earth, and intermeddle with men's 
affairs, are found when examined to be a set of intangible shadows, dressed 
up in mantles,, coats, robes, hats, boots, beards, gowns, bonnets, and the va- 
rious costumes worn by men and women. This class of phenomena will be 
clearly explained to the mind of the reader, in the present volume. A dis- 
tance of five hundred miles, intervening between me and the publisher of my 
letters, no time could be afforded for corrections, as casts were taken of the 
letters as they were published, with a view to give them a permanent form. 
The advice of friends induced me to undertake the discussion, and I have 
drawn largely on the labors of others for facts, and have given due credit, 
in each instance, to the authors consulted. To the gentlemen who have so 
liberally given me this opportunity of placing my objections to Spiritualism 
before the world, and to all true friends of free discussion, I respectfully 
dedicate these pages — hoping that the world will as freely criticise what I 
have written, as I have the writings and opinions of others. 

B. W. RICHMOND. 



I^nrtrftge ^ Srittaiffi Ipiritiuil liknq. 



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The Philosophy of Spiritaal Intercourse. 

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Familiar Spirits. 

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Night Side of Nature. 

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The Spiritual Teacher. 

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The Pilgrimage of Thomas Paine. 

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Elements of Spiritual PhUosophy. 

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Fascination: 

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Shadow-Land; 

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Supernal Theology. 

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Messages from the Superior State. 

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Love and Wisdom from the Spirit-World. 

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Philosophy of Mysterious Agents. 

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Answers to Seventeen Objections 

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The Approaching Crisis: 

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The Harmonial Man: 

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The Spiritual Telegraph, Vol. I. 

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The Shekinah, Vol. II. 

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Brittan's Eeview of Beecher's Keport, 

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Philosophy of the Spirit- World. 

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A Chart, 

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C 173 82 



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